SIOUX CITY, Iowa (KTIV) -
As the hot weather continues this summer, the Sioux City Police Department wants to draw attention to a criminal parental behavior.
Police have been notified three times this summer of children left sitting in a car unattended in extreme heat.
Experts say children cannot internally regulate their body temperature like adults. Since 1998, 537 children have died from over heating after being left in a vehicle.
The interior of a car can go from 80 degrees to 123 degrees in a matter of an hour.
"If it's 100 degrees outside and the temperature inside the car in 10 minutes goes up 20 degrees, the temperature inside the car is 120 degrees in 10 minutes," Chad Sheehan of the Sioux City Police Department said.
Police are still investigating all reported local incidents.