Authorities say a Cheektowaga Police officer had to break a car window to rescue a toddler from the sweltering vehicle after her mother apparently overdosed on heroin.
Police say an officer noticed a parked car with its engine running and lights on in a parking lot outside a closed business at Genesee and Harlem late Tuesday night. As the officer approached the car, a little girl jumped up on the seat.
He then noticed a woman slumped over in the front seat with a needle sticking in her arm. The girl's mother was unconscious in the front seat and police could not awaken her in the locked car.
The officer broke a window to free the 3-year-old girl, who was suffering from dehydration.
The mother, identified as 28-year-old Jade Nikel of Cheektowaga, who police say woke up from a heroin-induced sleep and was taken to a hospital for evaluation. She was charged with reckless endangerment, child endangerment, criminal possession of a controlled substance and possession of a hypodermic instrument.
The girl is being cared for by relatives.
WBFO's Mark Wozniak contributed to this story.