Two adults in Ohio have been charged with child endangering for transporting children in the back of a U-Haul truck.
Police say the children were sweating from the heat.
Officers were called to a Speedway gas station in Elyria, Ohio around 2:30 p.m. Wednesday after someone reported that the children were in the back of the truck.
A 2-year-old was already being treated for heat exhaustion.
Five children ranging in ages from 2 to 15 years old were found in the back of the U-Haul with 25-year-old Jamie Adkin.
The youngest child was taken to University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center in Elyria before being air lifted to University Hospitals Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital in Cleveland for further treatment.
The other children went to a nearby hospital but didn't have any major injuries. However, the children did have bed bugs, lice and fleas on them, according to the police report.
The witness, a man who works for the City of Elyria, told police that he went inside the gas station to buy a Gatorade. When he walked out, he saw the back of the U-Haul open.
The witness intervened when he saw the children and one adult start to load back into the truck.
Brian Dekam, 55, was driving the vehicle. Adkin's fiancé was a passenger in the front.
Adkin told officers they all woke up around 4:30 a.m. to go to a flea market in nearby Amherst, Ohio. She and the children were driving back to Cleveland when they stopped at Speedway to get drinks.
While in booking, Adkin told officers she was the babysitter for the four younger children, not including the 15-year-old.
Adkin said she has been in charge of the children for nearly two weeks.
The four younger children will be placed in foster care and will await a foster home, according to children services.
Adkin was charged with four counts of endangering children, including one felony of the third degree and three misdemeanors of the first count. Dekam was charged with five counts of endangering children, including one felony of the third degree and four misdemeanors of the first degree.
Both Adkin and Dekam were given a summons for medical reasons and were released with their personal property and charges.
They were given a court date for Aug. 3 at 10 a.m.
