Parenting Rule #28: Children Aren't Dogs, So Don't Leave Them in the Car

From the Cincinnati Enquirer comes one of the most embarrassingly funny stories ever about bad parenting:

Deputies arrest 'Dr. McDreamy'

In a two-minute video that aired on "Access Hollywood" for an "Are You the Real Dr. McDreamy?" contest last fall, Dr. Jeffrey Betts drove off in a yellow Porsche convertible.

Months later, his yellow Porsche reemerged in a less favorable spotlight. Betts was arrested Friday, accused of leaving his two young daughters in the car, unattended.

Betts, 41, of Indian Hill, was charged with two counts of child-endangering Monday after the incident in the parking lot of the Lowe's store on Mason-Montgomery Road in Deerfield Township. The misdemeanor charge carries a possible maximum sentence of six months in jail.

According to police reports, this is what happened on Friday:

Warren County Sheriff's Deputy Jim Doddy was on patrol around 2 p.m. in the parking lot when he was flagged down by a woman in a red van and told there were two small children unattended in the Porsche.

When Doddy approached the car with the vanity license plates "KEPT GUY," he found the girls, ages 2 and 4, were unresponsive inside. The car was turned off and windows were rolled up.

After knocking on the window, the 4-year-old woke up but couldn't open the door.

Doddy broke out the driver-side window after unsuccessful attempts to unlock the door.

When Betts ran out of the store, he told deputies he went into the store for only a few minutes, and that the car was cool.

"We determined Betts' decision to leave his children in the vehicle unattended created a substantial risk to the children's health and safety," Lt. Brian Tinch wrote in the report.

Betts was arrested and later released. The girls, who were uninjured, were turned over to their mother.

Betts could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

The former pediatric radiologist at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center is now a self-employed physician, according to police reports.

Betts left the hospital about a week after his video - which showed him stripping off his hospital scrubs into a Speedo - aired on Nov. 10 on "Access Hollywood."

Read the entire story (with photo) here.

Regardless of its justification, I'm sure the officer was almost giddy with the thought of bashing in a Porsche's side window.