Cops: Bargain hunter took home TV, left tot

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WHDH) -- Police say a Springfield man locked his girlfriend's 2-year-old son in a car while he went Black Friday shopping, then went home with his new 51-inch flat screen television and left the toddler behind.

With temperatures below freezing, police say they were called out to the Kmart where they found the boy asleep in the vehicle in the parking lot at about 1:30 a.m. Friday.

Police broke the car’s window and took the boy to the hospital as a precaution.

“I don’t understand how you could leave my child in a car,” the boy's mother said. “It’s not about the money. It’s not about the big screen TV. And it hurts.”

To make matters worse, police say the 34-year-old boyfriend didn't stop to talk to them, instead he hitched a ride home before heading to the hospital.

He told police he lost the boy while shopping, panicked. The man’s girlfriend didn’t want to show her face on camera, but she is outraged after police say her boyfriend left her son in the car unattended for hours.

“He told me he was scared he was going to go to jail and he didn’t want anyone else to wait to call me and then my son just gets taken away further than where I had to go to get him,” the boy's mother said.

The toddler is fine and back home.

7News spoke with the boyfriend by phone. He admitted he's embarrassed and it was a mistake, and he's apologized; he said only went home because his cell phone died.

The man was not arrested and but police said it is possible charges could be filed.