DES PLAINES, Ill. — Six children were hospitalized on Monday after authorities found them locked in a van in a suburban Chicago parking lot.
According to the North Maine Fire Protection District, crews were called to the Park Colony apartment complex in Des Plaines, Illinois, at about 12:35 p.m. CDT, WLS-TV reported. Authorities said the children’s ages ranged from 1 to 7 years old.
The vehicle was “accessible” and crews did not have to break in, according to WGN-TV.
Firefighters said the children had been in the vehicle for an “extended period of time,” WMAQ-TV reported.
Temperatures reached 80 degrees on Monday in the area, according to WBBM-TV.
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Melissa Compton, the property manager of the apartment complex, told WLS that she was alerted about the children, which included two of them in car seats.
“They had no water, no food that I could see, and the car was locked,” Compton told WBBM. “So many tenants responded, bringing water and food out to the kids. We were passing it through the windows while we waited for the police to come.”
Compton told the television station that the children and their father do not live at the apartment complex.
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The six children were taken to Advocate Lutheran General Hospital for treatment. Their conditions were unknown, WLS reported.
The television station left messages with the Cook County Sheriff’s Office seeking more information.