Illegal alien leaves kids in car at Wal-Mart
By Jon Johnson

Published on Tuesday, April 28, 2009 10:14 AM MST

An undocumented alien and his wife were turned over to the Border Patrol Saturday after police were dispatched to Wal-Mart in reference to children left inside a vehicle.

A reporting party notified Safford Police at about 12:26 p.m. that children were alone in a blue 1996 Chevrolet Lumina and they were sweating.

Officer Herschel Medlin arrived on scene and confirmed three children were alone in the car and sweating. The ages of the children are 8, 9, and a 5-month-old baby.

The older children told Medlin their father, Omar Marquez, was inside Wal-Mart shopping. Medlin then had the store page Marquez to his car.

Once Marquez arrived at his vehicle, Medlin informed him he could not leave the children inside the vehicle as he shopped due to the extreme heat that can build up in a car, especially in Arizona.

According to a study by the Department of Geosciences at San Francisco State University, 42 children in the United States died of hyperthermia due to being left in cars in 2008. The study reports three deaths have already occurred in 2009 and that vehicles can reach life threatening temperatures, especially for infants, even when the temperature outside is mild. Since 1998, 21 children have died in Arizona due to being left in a car.

Even with the windows cracked, with an outside temperature of 80 degrees, the inside temperature of a car can climb to over 123 degrees in less than an hour, according to a vehicle heat study by General Motors.

On hot days, a dark dashboard or car seat can easily reach temperatures in the range of 180 to 200 degrees.

Medlin asked Marquez if he had any identification on him. Marquez said he had a Mexican driver's license and a Visa at his house. Marquez told Medlin he could call someone to bring it to them.

As Medlin began to retrieve his cell phone from his patrol vehicle, Marquez suddenly began running south through the parking lot. Safford officers set up a perimeter around the parking lot, and Marquez was discovered hiding in the back of a truck by officer Sherri O'Neal.

Officers then learned the mother of the children, Rosalena Vasquez, was working at La Casita Restaurant in Thatcher. She was contacted and responded to the scene.

Medlin asked Vasquez for her identification, and she said she did not have any as she was a citizen of Mexico. She claimed that her children were born in the United States, however, but did not have any documentation with her.

Marquez, Vasquez and their children were taken to the Graham County Sheriff's Office and turned over to the Border Patrol. Vasquez requested that their children stay with them when she and Marquez were deported back to Mexico.

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