Officer Breaks Into Sweltering Car to Save ‘Baby’—Then Realizes His Huge Mistake
By Ruth Kamau | February 28, 2025
Note: This story was originally published in August 2016.
A New Hampshire police officer made a dramatic move when he broke into a car to rescue a baby trapped inside, only to be hit with an unexpected twist: the infant was nothing more than a lifelike doll.
On July 23, Keene police Lt. Jason Short was dispatched to a Wal-Mart after reports of a baby locked in a hot car in the parking lot, according to WMUR. With temperatures rising, Short quickly assessed the situation. Spotting what appeared to be feet sticking out from under a blanket, he made the split-second decision to break the window and rescue the baby.
When Lt. Short finally located the car’s owner, Carolynne Seiffert, who was getting her hair cut at Super Cuts during the incident, she explained that the “baby” was actually a lifelike doll, meticulously designed to resemble a real infant. In fact, Short remarked that when he picked it up, the doll even felt like a real baby.
Seiffert had bought the lifelike doll, named Ainslie, just a week before the incident from a specialized doll nursery for a staggering $2,300, according to the Sentinel Source. Known as a “reborn” doll, Ainslie is meticulously handcrafted from silicone to mimic the appearance of a real baby as closely as possible. Seiffert, a collector of reborn dolls, is no stranger to these incredibly detailed creations.
In response to the confusion, Carolynne Seiffert now holds a sticker that reads a clear message: the “babies” inside her car aren’t real toddlers. She says she plans to place the sticker on her vehicle to prevent future misunderstandings—and potential rescues.
Photo Credit: Sentinel Source
Sources: WMUR, Sentinel Source