A Boston dad has captured the moment his wife realized she had locked their baby daughter in the car—along with the car keys.
Kevin Cooney, a content creator and entrepreneur, took to his Instagram, @kevincooneyy to reveal his wife Ashley’s mistake.
“I was in a meeting with my agent when Ashley was getting ready to run some errands with baby Breezy,” Cooney told Newsweek. “In the hustle and bustle of it all Ashley left her phone and keys inside her Mercedes as she was packing up to head out and leave.”
As a new mom, Ashley can be forgiven for making the mistake. She's not the first and she won't be the last. Some of her absentmindedness in that situation can be attributed to the sleep deprivation that accompanies life as new parent.
In 2024, a survey of 1,500 new parents commissioned by mattress company Sleepopolis found 71.91 percent of new parents were getting insufficient sleep 3 nights a week or more, while 8 in 10 felt heightened "parenting stress or guilt" when sleep deprived.
The video Cooney posted to Instagram includes security camera footage of the moment Ashley realized her mistake.
“On our Ring camera, Ashley starts to panic as she closes the door and realizes her keys were inside,” Cooney said.
“It's a newer car so she is still getting used to it but we figured there must be some kind of safety feature that prevents your car from locking if your keys are inside of it.”
When Cooney discovered what had happened, he decided to hit record on his phone. He said Ashley was “panicking” and he was eager to make light of the situation, knowing that they would laugh about it later.
“I default to humor in stressful situations, it's how I handle stress,” Cooney said. “Ashley later said thank god one of us can crack jokes because if both parents start to panic it would only escalate the situation.”
What made the situation a whole lot easier for both of them was the fact that Breezy stayed happy and calm in her car seat through the whole episode.
As the video shows, the situation was eventually resolved with no harm done. “We called the non-emergency number for dispatch to send over a squad car to help assist,” Cooney said.
“They arrived within minutes and were able to slip an inflatable pad in between the door to then fish hook and unlock it.”
Cooney and Ashley can definitely laugh about it now and he’s pleased to see others have gotten a kick out of his video on Instagram. In the meantime, both he and his wife have taken steps to avoid a repeat.
“Mercedes has an app that Ashley and I have both downloaded to ensure both of us have access to unlock the car doors,” Cooney said.
However, with more sleepless nights to come, you can be sure there will be a few unexpected surprises in the not too distant future.
