3-year-old boy in Jakarta dies after accidentally locking himself in stranger’s car: police

Illustration. Photo: Pixabay
Illustration. Photo: Pixabay

A 3-year-old boy in Penjaringan, North Jakarta was found dead on Saturday, with police saying that the toddler locked himself in a stranger’s car, allegedly while playing without parental supervision.

According to the police, the boy, identified by his initial R, went off playing on his own on Friday when he found and went inside an unlocked parked car.

“He died because he ran out of oxygen. The boy went inside the car by himself and accidentally pressed the automatic lock button. The car was locked and he couldn’t get out,” Penjaringan Police Crime Investigation Unit Head Commissioner Mustakim told Kompas yesterday.

Mustakim added that the car’s owner, 26-year-old Afandi, was shocked to find R’s lifeless body in his car on Saturday.

“[R] has no relation to the car’s owner because the owner just parked his car on an empty plot of land near an apartment building,” he said.

It’s not clear when R locked himself inside Afandi’s car, but the police say it could be sometime on Friday afternoon as the car was parked at around 1pm that day.

Speaking to the media, R’s father said his son usually plays with his friends and never strays too far from his house. On Friday, though, he says he heard neighbors say they saw R follow an ondel-ondel traveling puppet show, which was the last time anyone saw him before he was found dead in the car.

The police have yet to announce whether or not anyone would be criminally charged in this case.



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