SHAKOPEE, Minn. - An Edina woman is charged with child endangerment after police say she forced her nephew to ride home from Valley Fair in the trunk of her car.
A criminal complaint issued in Scott County says Susan Marie McCarty, 38, told police she made the boy ride home in the trunk because he had just been on a water ride and she did not want the leather seats in her Lexus to get wet.
Shakopee Police were called to the Valleyfair parking lot just after 2:45 p.m. on Aug. 23 after witnesses observed a male child climb into the trunk of the car with two female adults standing by.
Witnesses told police that after the adults entered the car, another child, his sister, left the car, asked if his feet were clear and shut the trunk. They did not see the 11-year-old leave the trunk, and they obtained the car's license plate.
Shakopee Police ran the plate, which was registered to an address in Edina. Edina Police were notified, found the car and made a traffic stop. The boy was no longer in the car at the time of the stop, and the driver, identified as Susan McCarty, was described by an Edina officers as agitated and argumentative.
The criminal complaint says McCarty "later admitted to transporting her nephew in the trunk of the vehicle because he was soaking wet and she did not want the leather seats to get wet."
An officer told investigators that "the back seat center console/cup holder was folded forward, leaving a hole approximately the size of a piece of paper for air movement to reach [the child]... When he claimed to be getting warm in the trunk, the air vents were aimed directly at the hole."
Proscutors say when questioned by police, the 11-year-old said it was hot in the trunk, and told them he would rather have sat in the back seat.
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