PILOT MOUNTAIN — An infant that was accidentally left inside a hot car Wednesday at Food Lion turned out to be okay, but the incident has prompted area officials to warn residents to be more vigilant as temperatures remain in the 90s.

According to Police Chief Darryl Bottoms, a 911 call was received at 2:10 p.m. that a child had been left in a car in the store’s parking lot. The 6-month-old boy was flush and crying, Bottoms said. The chief said he was not sure how long the child was in the car, though he said it could have been 10 to 15 minutes.

“From what I understand the mother of this child, when she pulled up down there, she just absolutely forgot the child was in the car seat. A passerby saw the baby in there crying and she went inside Food Lion and had then to announce it over their intercom system. The mother rushed out of the store, got the baby and brought it back in Food Lion,” said Bottoms.

He said paramedics arrived and checked the child The baby did have an elevated body temperature, but other than that, Bottoms said, everything was OK.

Bottoms notified the Department of Social Services of the incident, but believes the mother honestly just forgot to get the child out of the car.

“I do believe it was a mistake on the mother’s part, but it could have been a costly mistake,” Bottoms said.

He said the windows on the car were left up and in the 90-plus degree temperatures that afternoon.

“With the windows up on a vehicle like that it gets well over 100 degrees in a hurry, especially on a day like that, even with animals or anything, you don’t leave anything in a vehicle this time of year because of the danger of it — a few more minutes and we could have had a real problem on our hands,” Bottoms said.

John Shelton, director of Surry County Emergency Services, warned parents to make sure they take do not leave their children in hot cars.

“During this time of the year, the air is not circulating well. It’s really not good to leave a child in a car anyway. You need to take the child in with you,” said Shelton.

He said there is no hard and fast rule on how long it would take for a child to perish in a hot vehicle.

“It really varies, it depends on the temperature, the angle the car is relative to the sun, the hydration on the child, the age and weight of the child, the type of vehicle,” Shelton said.

“It’s just not a good idea to leave children or pets in vehicles in heat or even in extreme cold as well.”

No charges were filed in the incident.

Contact Mondee Tilley at mtilley@mtairynews.com or at 719-1930.