Man allegedly put daughters in trunk
A man from Washington, D.C., is to be arraigned today in Wrentham District Court on child endangerment charges, after he stuffed his two young daughters in the trunk of his car outside a nursing home in Foxborough, authorities said.
Michael Fekete and his daughters, ages 9 and 11, had come to Massachusetts from Washington to visit the girls' grandmother at the nursing home, a Department of Social Services spokeswoman said last night.
In a news release, Foxborough police said a witness called at 2:53 p.m. yesterday to report having seen a man, later identified as Fekete, force the children into the trunk before letting them out, putting them in the back seat, and driving away, police said. Details about the length of time the girls were in the trunk were not given.
Temperatures reached 90 degrees in Greater Boston yesterday.
Sergeant Allan Haskell pulled the car over shortly after police were called . He and two other officers arrested Fekete, police said.
The officers brought Fekete and his daughters to the police station and charged him with domestic assault and reckless endangerment of a child.
Police alerted social service officials, and workers took the children into custody, said DSS spokeswoman Denise Monteiro.
The children were later released to family members who live in Massachusetts . The children's mother (Fekete's wife) was driving from Washington last night, and DSS officials planned to release the children to her after she arrives, Monteiro said.
In March 2002, police arrested a Shrewsbury man after he allegedly locked his 3-year-old daughter in the trunk of his car at Natick Mall, an episode that spurred another DSS investigation.
The child, whom police did not identify, was not hurt and was in the trunk for only a few minutes before her mother ran out of the mall and let her out, police said.
Since September 2001, manufacturers have been required to include internal latch releases in cars with trunks, to keep people from being trapped inside. Between 1970 and 2000, 1,175 people were caught in trunks, and at least 260 of them died, government figures show.
A study by the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found 19 cases in which children 6 or under died in car trunks between 1987 and 1998. 