Police are hunting for the parents of a baby found locked inside a hotel safe, who are said to be from the Brooklyn area of New York.
On Tuesday around 10:00 a.m., the family notified the hotel staff that the baby had been locked in the safe. A maintenance worker was sent to the room in order to free the baby.
The baby was alert and crying, police said. The parents, who were on the scene when the maintenance worker freed the baby, left the Howard Johnson Hotel near Niagara Falls before the police arrived.
Police are now trying to trace the family to determine the child’s welfare and how the baby ended up locked inside the safe.
Detective Constable Amanda Sanders, of Niagara regional police’s child abuse unit, said: “At this point we don’t know if it’s anything more than a preventable accident.”
The infant is believed to be less the a year old and small enough to fit inside the safe, which measures around 50cm x 35cm x 43cm.
The family is believed to be travelling in a 2015 grey Ford van, with the license plate B31EUB.
Niagara regional police spokesman Scott Kraushar said US border services have been notified about the incident and the van has not crossed back into America.
Anyone who sees the van is asked to contact police at 905-688-4111 x4320.