The 1-year old boy was found alone, crying and sweating, in the back of a Mercedes-Benz outside the Americana Mall in Manhasset Tuesday afternoon.
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Two eyewitnesses tried to break into the car to get him out, but were unsuccessful.
When police arrived, they were able to break a window with a department-issued knife and get the infant out.
Police say he was in there for about an hour and is expected to be OK.
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The boy's parents, Jingcai Zhou, 34, and Lu Lu, 28, are being charged with Reckless Endangerment 1st Degree and Endangering the Welfare of a Child.
They apparently told police they set their phones to alert them to check on their baby every so often.
"They were shopping... their answer was, well we checked on him every 25 minutes," Nassau County Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder said. "Most of us have children. You leave a 1-year-old child alone for 30 seconds, the world changes."
According to the criminal complaint, the baby was "breathing heavily, sweating profusely and at grave risk of death" when he was rescued.
"They were in the Americana Mall, it's a high-end shopping mall, as we all know, so I guess they were too busy shopping than worrying about their 1-year-old child," Ryder said.
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