City Notes: Ma’alot police rescue toddler left in locked car

News and police briefs from around the country.

By TAMARA ZIEVE
Police cars at night 370 (photo credit: Courtesy Israel Police)
Police cars at night 370
(photo credit: Courtesy Israel Police)
NORTH
Patrol police in Ma’alot rescued a two-year-old who had been left alone in a vehicle last week, following a report from passersby. Officers and fire fighters arrived at the scene, smashed the car’s windshield and rescued the child, unscathed. The police found the toddler’s father, who claimed during his interrogation that he had thought his wife had taken the child out of the car.
Dep.-Cmdr. Ami Moallem of the Ma’alot police station urged parents to be alert and not to leave a child unattended in a vehicle for even one moment.
In light of this and other similar incidents, a new mobile app called BimBa has been developed to try to prevent such occurrences. The app is designed to automatically detect the connection and disconnection of a mobile device from the speaker phone in the car and to alert parents to take their children with them as they exit the vehicle.
“It’s all about FBS – forgotten baby syndrome. It happens every hot season, and the reality is it could happen to every one of us, even the most well-meaning, careful and responsible person,” the app description states.
When a driver gets into his or her car and the car’s Bluetooth device is turned on, BimBa asks if there is a baby on board. If the driver clicks “Yes,” the app is triggered to “baby in car” mode. When the driver is beyond the car’s Bluetooth range, BimBa launches three warnings that someone or something may still be in the vehicle.
Nazareth police seize fireworks
During an operation to identify dangerous devices in Kafr Kana, police from the Nazareth police station conducted an apartment search in the village and found hundreds of items including firecrackers, fireworks and remote-control fireworks. The items were confiscated and destroyed.
Police arrested a man in his 20s from Kafr Kana, and a 25-year-old and a 30-year-old from Nablus. The three suspects were taken in for questioning at the Nazareth police station.
Acting police chief of the Nazareth police station, Supt. Shlomi Cohen, stated, “The Israel Police is working to reduce the use of hazardous toys and weapons in all sectors in order to ensure public safety, lives and property.”
CENTER
Southern vendors invited to sell at Jaffa Port
In light of the security situation and in a gesture of solidarity with the South, Jaffa Port invited vendors from the South to set up booths at the designers’ market last week, free of charge, within the framework of the Friday LIVE event, the Local website reported. The vendors were invited to display their wares and enjoy a peaceful setting, a large audience and live performances.
Among the items for sale were natural creams, baked goods, roasted gourmet coffee and second-hand boutique items.
Brothers from moshav in closed military zone bring fish business to center
Two brothers from Moshav Tekuma in the Negev, located five kilometers from the Gaza Strip, are bringing their fish business to the center, as it is floundering due to the security situation in the South.
“In recent weeks, we haven’t had any work,” the Dobkin brothers wrote in an email circulated to residents of the center. “Event halls in the area are closed as are the restaurants. People cannot reach our business because the area was declared a ‘closed military zone.’ For this reason, we are now marketing our fish to the center,” they said, seeking new customers in the Sharon area, Herzliya, Tel Aviv, Ramat Aviv, Givat Shmuel, Kiryat Ono, Jerusalem, Gush Etzion and Rehovot.
The brothers have been selling raw, fresh and frozen fish for 20 years.
Lod father abducts his children, rams into police car
A family dispute in Lod resulted in the abduction of children by their father, Ma’ariv reported last weekend.
According to the report, the man arrived at the house of his wife – with whom he is in a dispute – took the children without her permission and made off with them in his car. Police who were called to the scene chased after the car, which was making its way south.
At one point, as they approached Kiryat Gat, the police ordered the man to stop, and he rammed his vehicle into the police car, lightly injuring the officers.
The children were returned to their mother, while the father was taken in for interrogation at the Lod police station.
SOUTH
MDA brings two new shelters to Beersheba
Magen David Adom contributed two new bomb shelters to Beersheba after learning that there was a shortage, particularly for residents who cannot reach public protected areas in time. Residents living in the city’s Nahal Ashan area, some of whom are disabled, live in homes that do not have protected spaces and are therefore forced to run to a shelter when sirens are sounded. Those who are disabled cannot get to a protected space within the allotted time of one minute.
According to the Local website, after hearing personal stories, specifically one about a boy who can’t get his handicapped father to a protected space in time, MDA director-general Eli Bin instructed projects director Asi Debilensky to take immediate action and install two shelters in the neighborhood.
“It is inconceivable that during the current dangerous security situation, there are residents who don’t have an appropriate solution. To help, I instructed that two shelters belonging to MDA immediately be transferred to Beersheba until quiet returns to the area,” Bin was quoted as saying.
Debilensky said that once they had, in collaboration with the Beersheba Municipality, installed the new shelters in places where they would provide shelter for the maximum number of residents, they ran a test to see if the boy could bring his handicapped father there in time. He managed to do so within less than 10 seconds.
Eilat center for at-risk youth inaugurated
A year after it began running activities, Susan’s Home in Eilat, the second center of its kind in Israel, which provides a home and creative activities for 24 at-risk youth, was inaugurated last week. Present at the inauguration were the family of the late Susan Kaplansky after whom the home is named; Eilat Mayor Meir Yitzhak Halevi; representatives of the Welfare and Social Services Ministry; and business owners from the city who contributed to the home’s opening. The home includes a visitors’ center where arts and crafts made by the youth, mainly glass items, are sold. Proceeds go toward maintenance of the center.
Twelve years ago Eyal Kaplansky, Susan’s husband, founded Susan’s House in Jerusalem together with his friends out of his desire to fulfill his wife’s dream of helping in the rehabilitation and integration of at-risk youth in the working world through art.
The idea was to integrate the youth in a business initiatives project and thus enable them to integrate into a normative, challenging and interesting framework through practical learning and experience in taking personal and social responsibility and decision-making.
A year ago, the Eilat branch of Susan’s Home opened. It houses youngsters between 15 and 18, most of whom have dropped out of school and do not have jobs. The youth at Susan’s Home make a variety of glassware decorated with special prints, as well as handmade glass beads, which they use to make jewelry and other items.
At the opening event Hani Hecht, deputy director of the Social Services Division, described the center as a success story.
“Youth who have not managed to integrate into other workplaces because they are not accepted there or are quickly fired succeed in remaining in their framework for a year and sometimes even two years, at the end of which they integrate into normative work, the IDF and National Service,” she said.
Also speaking at the ceremony, Kaplansky vowed on behalf of all the project’s partners “to leave no child behind.” He asserted, “Our strength is in our unity.”
Two graduates of the Jerusalem house were also present to show their support for the residents of the new home.