Authorities said a father in Las Vegas was taken into custody because he would not allow them to smash the window of his new car in an attempt to save his dying child.

Sydney Deal, 27, alerted the police when he discovered that Sayah Deal, 1, was left alone in the heated car throughout the afternoon with his keys still inside.

Deal declined the authorities’ offers to smash the window, contact a locksmith, or send for a tow truck, requesting them to phone his brother instead.

Officers proceeded to break through the window a few minutes later in order to extract the unconscious Sayah. She passed away right there.

Police suspect she had been in the heated car for more than an hour, while the cause of her death is still under investigation.

Image courtesy of Jaded Nerd
Deal had called his brother, according to KVUU, to tell him that he had unintentionally left Sayah in the car, but the air conditioning was still on. Despite being perplexed by the call, he said he raced to the house.

He offered to smash the window when he got there, wrapping his shirt around his hand, but Deal declined, saying he didn’t have the money to fix it. In order to get their mother’s insurance company to contact a locksmith, he had his brother call their mother.

According to the Las Vegas Sun, Deal’s girlfriend called the insurance company, but he told her to hang up because he didn’t agree with the price they quoted for a tow truck. He was booked into the Clark County Detention Center, charged with one count of child abuse or neglect causing substantial bodily harm. He was held on $20,000 bond.