The mum who saved two babies from a sweltering car on Monday has spoken to The Project about her lucky save.
Napier woman Chrystal Alatasi says she had just been swinging in to a supermarket she almost never visits, when she heard a peculiar sound.
"I heard a baby crying," she told The Project, "and being a mum-of-four, I thought to myself, 'Wow that sounds like a real, distressed cry, not like a kid packing a tantrum'."
What Ms Alatasi saw next shocked her into action.
"I put my face up against the back windshield, and there were two babies in the back seat."
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"They were crying and distraught," she says, "and I checked all the doors and they were all locked and the windows were all up. Of course I'm in panic mode; I know these babies need air."
She called 111, and started figuring out her action plan immediately.
"So I'm thinking to myself smash the windows - and I said to the 111 lady, 'I'm gonna smash the windows' and she said, 'Well, why don't you ask the little girl to unlock the door?'"
Luckily, the little girl was old enough to understand the request, and unlocked the door for Ms Alatasi. But the Napier mum says the experience of opening the car door left her shaken.
"I couldn't believe the amount of heat that came out of that vehicle... it was like opening an oven."
Half an hour later, the children's mother returned from her shopping trip. Ms Alatasi says she couldn't believe the woman's attitude.
"This mother came out of the supermarket without a care in the world, I was just so furious, and sad at the same time. I was shaking, I was crying," she told The Project.
"I just thought wow, half an hour. Things could have been very, very different."
A police spokesperson told Newshub the children's mother received a formal warning, and a report will be made to Oranga Tamariki.
Newshub.
