As a parent with young kids, especially babies and toddlers who need help getting into the car, there’s nothing like trying to set off to an appointment or day care and realizing that things have quickly gone haywire and you likely won’t be making it to where you needed to be. For a family in the Bay Area of California, things certainly didn’t go to plan on a Sunday morning when they were trying to get to church. A mother put her 1-year-old in a relative’s Cadillac electric vehicle, only to experience sheer panic when the car became unresponsive and her baby was trapped inside.
Prior to this incident, the owners of the Cadillac EV thought they were getting the safest option.
The thing about parenthood is you never know when your day is going to change on a dime. January 4, 2026, felt like a typical Sunday morning before church for mother of two Lacey Gunn and her two girls, per ABC 7.
She had opted for her girls to ride in their grandparents’ Cadillac Lyriq EV that morning. “That’s the best car that we have to transport our precious cargo,” Erika Tinoco, the girls’ grandmother, told ABC 7.
Tinoco explained that “everything was fine” when her granddaughter, Lyla, was put inside the SUV and strapped her into her car seat, ABC 7 reported. When Gunn walked over to the driver’s side to put her toddler inside, she noticed the car handles were positioned in, which was odd, because they usually pop out when the car is unlocked.
That’s when the mom realized that the car was “completely unresponsive” and her baby was trapped inside.
A frantic mom and grandpa took turns trying to get the car to unlock to no avail.
Tinoco told ABC 7 that when the mom of two realized that she couldn’t get inside the vehicle, “the first thing she [did was] go into her purse to take out the key fob.”
She soon realized that the key fob wasn’t working. Gunn then tried to access the electric vehicle with the remote keyless entry feature with the Cadillac mobile app, which also wouldn’t work.
Even with a second key fob, the vehicle would not unlock. When the girls’ grandfather came outside to try and help, they took turns trying to open the car. At this point, the “baby starts to cry and is becoming really upset,” as it was a cold January morning and she was stuck in there all by herself.
Likely feeling like she was running out of options, Gunn got on the phone with OnStar, a safety and security service for General Motors cars. Sadly, a remote unlock was attempted, but failed, per ABC 7.
It turns out that all this happened because of a faulty battery. They had to get the baby out through the trunk.
After almost 25 minutes of trying to access the electric vehicle and debates about breaking the window, Gunn called emergency services. “Too much time had gone by. Nobody was of any help,” the grandfather told ABC 7.
Luckily, Gunn’s husband decided to ask ChatGPT about their predicament and got a solution that gave them instructions to access the trunk through a small latch with a physical key inside the key fob.
After approximately 27 minutes, they were able to pull a crying Lyla out of the car from the trunk.
According to ABC7 , the Tinoco’s 2024 Cadillac Lyriq EV was towed to a dealership, and techs tested the car’s 12-volt battery, finding it to be faulty and in need of replacing.
Talk about a super stressful Sunday morning! We’re just glad to hear that everyone is safe and it all worked out in the end for this family.
