The following is via LakewoodScoop:
A Jackson man is being hailed as a hero after saving the life of a baby left in a hot car in Howell.
At approximately 1pm on Monday, Patrolman Daniel Scherbinski #663 and Patrolman Edward Homiek #665 responded to Kohl’s located at 4799 Route 9 in Howell for a report of a child left unattended in a vehicle with the windows closed and doors locked.
Upon arrival at the Kohl’s parking lot, Ptl. Scherbinski and Homiek located the vehicle, which had its front passenger window shattered and an empty child car seat in the rear seat.
The officers quickly located the calling parties, Steve Eckel, 53 years old of Jackson and Sarah Mazzone, 30 years old of Howell. Eckel and Mazzone, who did not know each other prior to this incident, explained that they walked past the vehicle at about the same time and observed a four-month old child in the vehicle unattended with the windows closed and doors locked. The vehicle was off.
“The baby appeared to be in a great deal of distress-screaming, crying, bright red and sweating profusely,” police said. “The baby was fully clothed with a blanket partially covering her. The temperature at the time was in the upper 80s.”
Eckel grabbed a sledgehammer from his vehicle and used it to break the front passenger window of the vehicle and unlock the vehicle. Mazzone and Eckel carried the baby into the air-conditioned Kohl’s vestibule and contacted police.
While officers were speaking to Eckel and Mazzone, they observed a female – later identified as the mother of the distressed Lakewood baby – approach the vehicle in the parking lot and start to panic. The officers approached her and advised her they had her baby inside the store.
Howell First Aid responded to the scene and treated the baby, who by that time was doing much better as a result of the air conditioning. The investigation revealed that the baby was left in the vehicle in the above described condition for approximately forty minutes.
The mother was arrested and charged with endangering the welfare of a child. She was released pending court.
The baby was turned over to the custody of her father, who declined any further medical treatment for the baby. The baby appeared to be doing much better after being fed and cooled down.
Chief Andrew Kudrick stated, “I recognize the civilians who took immediate action to rescue this child, for they truly saved a life.”
Community activist Rabbi Moshe Zev Weisberg had nothing but praise for Mr. Eckel.
“On behalf of the leadership of Lakewood community, we’d like express our extreme gratitude for Mr. Eckel’s involvement in the unfortunate incident yesterday,” Rabbi Weisberg told TLS. “His unselfish actions were extremely helpful in ensuring this incident had a good outcome. With gratitude to the almighty, it was truly an act of Divine Providence that Mr. Eckel was at the right place at the right time.”
(Source: TLS)
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25 Responses
I realize that YWN editors had the “advantage” of a yeshiva “English” education, but they should still understand that the phrase “Good Samaritan” reeks of anti-Semitism and Avodah Zarah, and is highly inappropriate for your headine.
@akuperma I was thinking along the same lines. The Yeshiva World is engaging in too much “cut and paste journalism.” This sort of egregious error does not bode well for their business model.
You are nit picking. The awful fact is that there are still stupid parents out there who think it’s OK to leave an infant in a locked car alone in the heat. The mother was shopping in the nice air conditionned stores, but the baby was suffering alone. There are a lot of people out there who who would love to be parents, if you think so little of your miracle.
Mr. Eckel and Ms Mazzone made a big Kiddush Hashem by, so selflessly, helping a child.
Any Human Being makes a Kiddush Hashem when they do something righteous.
They also get credit, that they don’t brag of making a Great Kiddush Hashem for public admiration.
Bh a miracle !!! Pls don’t accuse the parents because it could r”l happen to anyone … We should never hear of such stories and bh for the outcome
Frum-n-Fair,
Do you really believe that this was done on purpose????
Frum and Fair??? What an ironic name….
@Frum-n-Fair
understand these parents are not stupid, neither are they negligent, these are amazing mothers who are doing their Best.
Have pity on them.
They are a product of a society who wants women take the role of the men and work hard to be the breadwinner for the family and at the same time raise their children efficiently. all in the name of their husband in koilel. these women are OVERWHELMED.
If mothers were given the ability to be mothers and not have the yoke of bringing in parnoso, they would have menuchas hanefesh with a clear head with raising their children.
Disclaimer
I don’t mean to bash a community and definitely not to put down ppl that are moiser nefesh for their husbands learning.
maybe it’s time to give the mothers in Lakewood a brake.
How come people don’t learn? A child should be a parents most precious possession. People who are so irresponsible should be jailed and fined heavily-minimum $500 so that these unfortunate irresponsible activities are not repeated..
Frum-n-fair your an idiot to think the mother left baby in car intentionally in order to shop. Accidents happen, not downplaying it but don’t just assume that she thinks little of her miracle.
Frum n fair: your comment is unfair. No one thinks it’s okay to leave an infant in a parked car by sometimes an overworked and over stressed brain (read: mother of infants) can mistakenly forget a child in a car. It is a terrible tragedy that should not be upon anyone in klal yisroel.
Well said, #3.
Frum-n-fair:Don’t give the mother so much credit. She wasn’t thinking. Period.
Frum people can also do stupid things!
Note:
If everyone who did something stupid was shot, the population explosion wouldn’t be a problem.
I rarely comment on any news sites but seriously, I cannot believe the first 2 comments.
The wording of the article is NOT the issue here
Call him what you like, but the fact remains he probably saved that baby’s life.
This is an incredibly serious issue and if the “Good Samaritan” hasn’t saved the baby, this frum woman would be charged with homocide.
DON’T LEAVE YOUR CHILD IN A CAR ALONE, EVEN FOR A MINUTE.
@Frum-n-Fair We are not nit picking, we are correcting an obvious oversight. After all, frum and fair is different than frum and slipshod.
Good Samaritan refers to a good person. Why do you insist on focusing on the negative. The ikkur of the story was that this good person saved a life. If he saved your child you wouldnt care what the media called him..
To #1 is this your gut feeing or spoke this over with a posek. Good Samaritan is not nival peh or name of an idol It is part of the English language.
1, 2, so true this site is a joke
Some commenters seem to assume that she knowingly left the baby intentionally. This is highly unlikely. This was most probably another case of “forgotten baby syndrome”. Google it if you don’t know what that is.
There are 40 cases reported a year, and undoubtedly countless more that aren’t reported, and they are not in any way limited to frum people or kollel people, and is not caused by a parent not caring about the child. Rather, it has to do with how the human brain responds to a change in routine.
Negligence in regard to human life should not be easily forgiven. If someone swung an axe and the head flew off or a chip from a tree flew out and killed someone, that axeman would have a death penalty on his head in that a goel hadam could kill him if he weren’t in an ir mikilat. This negligence is far less serious than leaving a child in a hot car without any thought for the child. The parent that does that is deserving of a severe punishment for taking so little consideration for the immense danger to the child.
a yiddle, why do you chose to badmouth KOLLEL, why not attack the feminists in the world who try to give women a man’s role. do you think it is a kiddush haShem when you attack the lomedai torah? are you bitter? why?please understand what chazal say, that the overworked wives of the talmedi chachomomim are considered haShem’s friends. don’t insult or deride them.
Parents should realize that leaving an unattended infant in a car alone.Even if it is for a short quick transaction,a person maybe unexpectedly be detained thus leaving an unattended infant in a real sacona . Rabbonim should address this with warnings since ,unfortunately ,these tragedies happen in our communities here in Eretz Yisrael and abroad.We should all be careful on this and not.take.the “nisht bei Mir” attitude.maybe it would be a good idea to.publish common safety issues for young children.We are careful to warn
rightfully on all halachic issues;we should consider safety matters as well.
BH this baby was saved but ain somchim al Hanes
Respectfull
Shimon
Those that have perhaps bothered to follow my comments in the past know full well that I am not one to nit-pick. However, there are times where an oversight must not be given free reign. I believe here is a case in point and I must agree with akuperma and those supporting him.
Putting aside the main point of the article with no intention to downplay its great significance, I must say that even before reading the article I was shock by its title. If I would have read such headline at any mainstream news website I would not have made any objection. Yes, it is true that the term “Good Samaritan” has lost its true meaning in today’s culture and is purely meant to express praise to those that do a good deed for another in times of need. However, as Jews we need to be more diligent than that in our literature. We as Jews can not and should not overlook the etymology of this horrible expression as it is a direct offense to Jews and Judaism both in regards to the mistaken etymology you will find on line and to the true roots of this expression used by the Romans.
For those that are not aware Bar Kochba was double-crossed by Samaritans when they gave over the locations of the secret passages that led into Beitar which allowed the Roman’s to enter and slaughter the entire community of Beitar. As a result the Romans started to refer to the Samaritans as “Good Samaritans”.
As far as the etymology quoted on line, that also is very negative. Its source is the New Testament in which Yashka (really it’s Luke) implies that Jews are of indifference towards non-Jews. His intention is to build animosity towards Jews. It certainly worked.
I must point out though that YWN may not be at blame for the headline. The headline and article actually belong to thelakewoodscoop.com. YWN may be obligated to quote them in its entirety in order to post it on this website. I could not verify that thelakewoodscoop.com is run by Orthodox Jews, but my assumption is that it is. If so, I am truly shocked that a media outlet that represents a true Torah community would be so callous to use such a repulsive expression!
For those that may think I’m being a little extreme consider this – if you ask a gentile what year it is they will tell you it is 2016 AD. However, ask a religious Jew from whichever denomination you choose and the answer will be 2016 BCE. For those that are not familiar AD stand for “After Death” (I.E. 2016 years After the Death of Yashka- which in truth is not an accurate date, but who cares). This, we took objection to and coined the abbr. BCE – “Before the Common Era”. Now, if something as harmless as mentioning when someone died is taken so objectionably by us, then all the more so a reference to great evil done against us should be discouraged.
The headline would have been more appropriate and would have been more personal if it would have stated instead:
“Rabbi Weisberg Thanks CARING CITIZEN Who Broke Car Window To Save Lakewood Baby Left Inside”
I’m sure Mr. Eckel would have felt a lot more appreciated for being “caring” than for having done “a good deed”.
@yerushmi
the anti feminist out there is not something i care to discuss they have nothing with the truth. Kollel is a beautiful thing and R Ahron Kutler did a tremendous thing back then when he pumped toro in America. that was his mission. today we’re in a different time.
since when in history was a whole society encouraging men to learn full time and women work full time. what happen to the kids that mothers want to take care of. what happened to being with the child. how important is it that a mother be with their child!!! at age 3 month 4 month 7 month crucial times. after 6 weeks the mother is at work. there are other ways of doing thing, mothers sending their husband and children to learning can be done with the husband bringing home a parnoso too. we’re not talking about the person who is a future Rov Dayan Rosh yeshiva etc these ppl should be learning full time and be supported, let’s get our minds straight on what chazal wants from us.
I thought all people in Jackson were antisemites.