My mum's doing the shopping, call her if I need anything': Mother leaves baby in locked car with note

Police officers were alerted to the situation at a supermarket car park in New Zealand after photos were posted online of the sleeping baby A mother left her baby alone in a locked car while she did the weekly shop with a note asking passers-by to call her if there were any problems. The shocking picture of the baby was taken by a concerned fellow shopper at the supermarket car park in Porirua, New Zealand. A man who parked next to the woman's car saw the infant inside with a note which read "My mum's doing the shopping, call her if I need anything" and a mobile phone number written underneath. He told a local newspaper: "We waited there for a little bit, wondering if the mum was just going to be two seconds and come back. "And my wife said, 'I'm not going in without someone being here with the baby'." According to the newspaper, two more people waited by the car and one of them phoned the mother to tell her to come outside. The image was later posted online sparking outrage across the country. Facebook user Cat Marie Horne wrote: "I'm sorry this is completely irresponsible! You do not leave children under the age of 14 unsupervised at all. "Why did she have time to write a note?? Secondly, you do not put a capsule seat in the front of a car, due to dashboard airbags. Also, if you are that tired you should not be driving." A spokeswoman for the New Zealand police said it was aware of the incident but said the mother would not face charges unless a member of the public made a complaint. She said: "We don't know who the people are, we don't know the phone number- we don't know where to start. We would launch an investigation if we could but at this stage no one's come forward." Parents in New Zealand can be fined up to $2,000 (£1,000) for leaving a child under 14 years old alone for an 'unreasonable' length of time. In an even more shocking child neglect case in China earlier this month, a thief who stole a car with a baby boy still strapped inside brutally murdered the child when he would not stop crying. Zhou Xijun, 48, strangled the two-month- old tot fearing his screams would alert passersby. He then buried the infant in a shallow grave and drove off.