Two South Whitehall Township police officers are being credited with saving the life of an infant locked in a vehicle.

Police Officers Colin Beaumont and Joel Wischner were dispatched at 3:56 p.m. on Oct. 7 after Owen Tremmel, 1, was accidentally locked in the family’s 2009 Toyota Rav4.

Beaumont, a police officer with South Whitehall for only four months, told The Press, they used a lock tool, called a Big Easy, to open the door so they could rescue the baby.

The tool puts a wedge between the door and door frame, which allows space to use a rod to open the door, Beaumont said.

“We got to the scene quickly and Officer Wischner collected the items we needed and I gave the grandmother (Martha Machado) the lock-out form to fill in,” he explained.

Beaumont said they unlocked the SUV door in about two to three minutes.

Once they made sure the infant was fine, his grandmother took Owen, which woke him up, as he had slept through the entire incident.

“It was one of the warmer days we had because he was pretty sweaty by the time we got him out,” Beaumont said. “He didn’t seem any worse for wear and did not need any medical attention.

Beaumont said when an infant is locked in a vehicle, it takes priority over other calls.

“It is what we are here for and it is not something we think twice about,” Beaumont said.

“The infant’s welfare was priority.”

Beaumont said this was purely a mistake and credits Machado with calling 911 right away.

Wischner, a South Whitehall police officer for three years, commented on the incident via email to The Press.

“Initially, I was not dispatched to this incident, but after hearing the circumstance, I felt it was best to assist Officer Beaumont,” Wischner wrote. “Lehigh County Radio reported there was a 1-year-old child locked inside a vehicle, with all the windows up and the vehicle’s engine was off,”

Wischner wrote it was not extremely hot that day, but the sun was intense and could elevate the temperature inside the vehicle very quickly.

“Officer Beaumont and I both arrived on scene at about the same time and started working on unlocking the vehicle,” he said. “With the utilization of our vehicle lock-out kits we have in every patrol vehicle, we were able to unlock the doors while the boy stayed sound asleep inside. The boy was then reunited with his grandmother.”

Owen’s grandmother Martha Machado and mother Stephanie Tremmel spoke with The Press about the incident.

“We had been out shopping and the baby had been asleep,” Machado said. “When we pulled into my driveway, I turned the car off.

“I went to hand Stephanie the keys, since I had been driving and she said ‘We will just change places, I think I will just go home because he is asleep,’ so we put the keys down on the seat and went to get out of the car to switch places and the car locked.

“I then asked Stephanie if she had a spare key.”

Both of their purses, along with Tremmel’s cell phone, were in the SUV.

“I had my keys and cell phone on me, so I gave her the keys to my car so she could go to her house in Upper Macungie to see if she had a spare key for the SUV,” Machado said.

“As soon as she left, I thought it was too hot to have this child sit in the car and wait, so I called 911.

“I then got a blanket out of the garage and threw it over the passenger side to block the sun. Then, I just waited for the police to arrive.”

While Machado was waiting for police, she saw an unmarked police cruiser driving by with a Salisbury Township police officer inside. She flagged him down and he stayed with her until Beaumont and Wischner arrived.

Tremmel said her first thought when she realized they had locked themselves out of the SUV was ‘Oh no, this is annoying,’ then her mind turned to instant panic when she realized they had just locked her son in the SUV.

Machado said with all the bad publicity today regarding police officers, she would like these officers to be recognized for their heroic actions.

“They are here to protect and serve and they do so every day,” Machado said. “When I posted the photo of the officers (holding Owen) on my Facebook page, I titled it ‘Handy, Handsome and Heroes.’”