One Florida family was in for the fright of their life this Halloween. Their toddler was unexpectedly trapped in their Tesla for nearly two hours. The day may have been for ghosts and ghouls, but the tiny Tinkerbell and her parents did nothing but think happy thoughts until she was free.
Eventually, Tampa Bay police were able to free the toddler. Now, her mom is sharing their story to highlight the defect in her car and to warn other parents that this kind of thing could happen to anyone.
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The family's Halloween was scary for a different reason.
Dakota Knox told Fox 13 News that on Halloween morning, she strapped her 18-month-old daughter, Salem, into her car seat in the family’s Tesla as she usually does. But what happened next for the toddler was anything but normal. After Knox closed the back door, her husband said he was unable to open his driver’s side door.
That was the beginning of a long saga.
“He’s like, ‘The door won’t open. The door won’t open. I don’t understand. I’m trying the app and the handle won’t work,'” Knox explained. They didn’t know why the doors wouldn’t work, and the parents realized their toddler was now trapped in their car.
Naturally, the mother was worried about her little one.
“I was terrified. My child was screaming. She was terrified,” Knox shared. She explained that the manual key wouldn’t open the door either. They tried restarting the Tesla app, but still nothing. Even though the car was fully charged, they could not open the doors.
“We don’t really know what’s going on,” she said. “This is strange. This has never happened before.”
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They had no idea how they were going to free their toddler — then an unexpected hero showed up.
Eventually Knox and her husband learned that the problem was with the car’s 12-volt battery, which controls the door locks. They tried to jump the battery with no luck. When they called Tesla support, the person told them that no one would arrive until the afternoon. But their toddler was still trapped.
Relief came for the family when three officers from the Tampa Bay Police Department showed up to help. “They were so calm, and they’re watching YouTube videos. We’re all trying to Google stuff,” she said.
“We had to go from the back seat and reach it all the way to the front seat. And thankfully, the police officers were able to actually get it unhooked and open the door,” she said. “We all cheered.” By then, their toddler had been in the car for nearly two hours.
Knox is sharing her story as a warning to other parents.
While she normally would get app alerts about her car, Knox said the alert about the 12-volt battery came five hours after it died.
“It seems to be a problem where you can’t get out, and they don’t have an override mechanism,” Knox said. “I loved our Tesla up until this moment. This was terrifying.”
