Elwood mum cops spray from stranger for leaving son in parked car for “not even one minute”

An Elwood single mother said a stranger called her a ‘slag’ and ‘stupid’ when she briefly left her crying son in her parked car to get him a drink of water. She said the level of abuse was out of line.

A young single mum has said she was abused by a stranger for leaving her crying son in her parked car for “not even one minute” while she ran in to a shop to buy him water.

Charlene Dandoulis blasted the man’s behaviour and urged more tolerance for parents.

She said she’d been rushing to and from appointments all day when her one and a half year old son, Ryder, started having a “tanty” in the back seat.

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The Elwood mother said she planned to be in an out of the convenience store near Ormond Rd, Elwood, in a matter of seconds, but a man approached while she was at the counter and started hurling abuse.

“He was saying you don’t deserve your child … he called me a slag. He was telling me I was clearly as stupid as I looked,” Ms Dandoulis said.

“In the past, every single time, even while filling up the car with petrol, I take my son with me … this was the first time,” she said.

“For someone to say that I on any level would not be considering what’s best for my child is insulting. I would assume that he would probably not have done the same if I was a big burly man.”

Weather records show the temperature reached a top of 23 degrees in Elwood that day, and Ms Dandoulis said she’d made sure she parked right outside the store so she could watch her son and she left the windows opened to let in plenty of air.

She said during the February 16 incident the man continued his vicious rant as he followed her from the shop to her car, even leaning down to scream at her through her infant son’s open window. His tirade only stopped, she said, when a shocked bystander intervened.

Ms Dandoulis received dozens of messages of support when she shared her experience on social media, with many calling out the man’s “abusive” and “ignorant” behaviour.

Others said they sympathised with Ms Dandoulis but would never leave a child in a car.

Ambulance Victoria senior paramedic Phil Campbell said children and pets should never be left in cars, even if it was only for a few minutes.

“Tests by Ambulance Victoria found even on a 29 degree day the inside of a car can heat up to 44 degrees within ten minutes and reach 60 degrees within 20 minutes. This can be catastrophic and unfortunately in the past there have been cases of children dying in hot cars,” he said.

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