Story Archive

A Special Place in Hell

An officer from the South Daytona Police Dept. was taking Colleen Walker, 30, to jail when she complained the police car was too hot for her. The air conditioning was on, but she “asked the officer to turn the AC up,” said Lt. Dan Dietrich. She had been arrested for felony child neglect: the witness who called 911 said her 5-year-old son was locked in her car, parked in direct sunlight, and he had been there for at least 20 minutes, screaming and crying, while she shopped. One window was down, but responding firefighters measured the temperature inside at 107 degrees (41.7C). “He wasn’t in the car for two hours, it was like, 12 minutes,” Walker complained. The store manager where Walker was shopping said she had been there for at least 30 minutes. “We get cases and cases where, 10, 15 minutes the kid is dead,” a firefighter who heard her “12 minutes” claim said. Walker faces up to 5 years in prison. (RC/WFTV Orlando) ...In a south-facing cell the farthest away possible from the central air conditioning.