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The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
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Parents Will Not Be Charged After Child Found Locked in Hotel Safe: Police

By Ben Fractenberg | August 20, 2015 1:44pm
 The baby was found locked inside a safe in a Howard Johnson Hotel in Canada Tuesday, police said.
The baby was found locked inside a safe in a Howard Johnson Hotel in Canada Tuesday, police said.
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NEW YORK CITY — The Brooklyn couple whose child was found locked in a hotel safe will not face criminal charges, police said Thursday after concluding the infant got stuck while playing hide-and-seek.

The 3-year-old girl got locked in the safe in a Howard Johnson Hotel in the Canadian side of Niagara Tuesday morning while playing with her 11-year-old sister.

Her parents alerted hotel staff who opened the roughly two-foot safe, where they found the girl “alert and crying,” Niagara police said.

The family then left the hotel before police were called.

“The family was unaware of all the attention they had received and were very co-operative with investigators from the Child Abuse Unit,” the Niagara Regional Police Service said in a statement Thursday.

“The child was found to be in good health and this investigation is now closed.”

Hotel staff were originally unable to get details about how the child got locked in the safe because of a language barrier, Niagara police told DNAinfo on Wednesday.

Both Canadian and United States authorities were involved in the search for the parents.

The family was staying with friends in Markham, Ontario, and was initially unaware of the search, according to officials.

They finally contacted the Niagara police Wednesday evening after seeing news stories.