Authorities are on the lookout for a family after a crying baby had to be rescued from the inside of a locked hotel room safe.
A Brooklyn, NY couple alerted staff at the Howard Johnson hotel in Niagara Falls and a maintenance worker freed the infant who is thought to be less than one year old.
The baby was alert and seemingly uninjured but the couple, perhaps out of embarrassment, quickly checked out of the hotel before police were informed of the incident.
Niagara regional police are now trying to trace the family to check on the child’s welfare, said Det.-Sgt. Scott Kraushar.
"The parents were quite distraught and brought the cleaning staff back to the hotel room. Unfortunately there was a delay in contacting police, and we’re not thinking that they were trying to run, they just checked out during that time."
Det.-Const. Amanda Sanders, of the police department’s child abuse unit, said it is it unclear how the baby got inside the safe.
"At this point we don’t know if it’s anything more than a preventable accident," she said.
Sanders said it was ‘possible’ that the baby crawled into the safe and was inadvertently locked inside.
Other guests at the hotel were less inclined to give the couple the benefit of the doubt.
"I can’t even imagine why they would even think of doing that. I know some people do crazy things today, but that probably tops the list of just about anything I’ve heard of lately," hotel guest Tray Watkins told a local Buffalo news station.
US border services have been alerted and local law enforcement is also liaising with the New York Police department to help track down the family.
