A baby has died after she was trapped in locked hot car and her dad refused to let police officers break in 'because of the costs of repairing the window'.
Sidney Deal is claimed to have told officers and his own brother that the car's air conditioning was on and his one-year-old daughter Sayah was 'ok'.
He is claimed to have refused to allow police to break the window, call a locksmith or a tow truck because of the cost.
But eventually officers broke the window and pulled out the unconscious girl who died at the scene in Las Vegas.
Police said the tragic tot had been trapped in the “high heat environment" for at least an hour.
Deal told police his daughter had been walking around the seats and when she lay down on the floor he thought she’d fallen asleep.
He has been charged with one count of child abuse or neglect causing substantial bodily harm.
According to police Deal flagged down patrolling officers in Las Vegas and told them he’d accidentally locked his keys inside his running car outside his home and that one-year-old Sayah was inside.
An officer offered to call a locksmith, a tow truck, or to break the window but Deal said no and inside borrowed the officer’s phone to call his brother, police said.
Detectives said Deal’s brother headed to the scene and immediately wrapped his shirt around his hand and offered to punch out the window.
However Deal stopped him saying the air conditioner was on and instead called their mum to have her insurance company send a locksmith, according to the arrest report.
Deal said he didn’t have money to replace the window if it was broken.
Deal’s girlfriend said before the tragedy the couple had fought and she asked for him and his daughter to leave the apartment, police said.
Deal told officers he had put his daughter in the car and returned back to the apartment where he continued to argue with his girlfriend for 15 minutes and asked her to give him back his phone.
She did but he returned seconds later asking if she could call his insurance company because he'd locked his keys inside the car.
Police claim she was on the phone to the company for 23 minutes before Deal told her to hang up as he disagreed with the price they were quoting.
Deal then flagged down the officers and by that time the tot had been trapped in the car for at least 42 minutes.
It wasn’t clear how long Sayah had been in the car before she was rescued but police say it was more than an hour as her body had already gone into rigor mortis.
Deal was due to appear before Las Vegas Justice Court on Tuesday but was unable to due to a 'medical issue' records show. He is being held on a $20,000 (£15,400) bond.
