What in the world is happening in this society? It has been on a consistent note that news headlines offer crime stories that are so unusual and heartless, and this time it has ended up taking the life of a toddler in Florida. His dad allegedly left him in the backseat of the truck in a worst-case scenario where the windows were down with no air conditioning available, but only a small battery-powered fan pointed at the child.
All these were recorded from the information that Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood said during an emotional news briefing on Friday, June 20.
Scott, the father, left his son, Sebastian, in the vehicle around 11:30 a.m., and he went on to have a haircut as per the investigators. When he was done with the haircut, he went straight to Hanky Panky’s, which was likely during the noon time, where he not only stayed but drank till 2 p.m., police said.
The investigator also said that, all this time that he was in the bar, a customer “backed into a bartender’s car,” and Scott came outside to check out the vehicle’s damage. His traits got reflected when they said he didn’t check on Sebastian before heading back into the bar to go for more drinks.
It was around around 2:40 p.m., that the gardener left HankyPanky andwent on to drive a short distance to his home and following all these he called l 911 to report that Sebastian was not breathing, Chitwood said.
🚨SHOCKING: Florida dad Scott Gardner arrested after 18-month-old son dies in scorching truck, baby’s body temp soaring to 111°F.
Allegedly left toddler locked for 3+ hrs while getting haircut & drinking at a bar. pic.twitter.com/yCWSIxUQ4G
— i Expose Racists & Pedos (@SeeRacists) June 21, 2025
The father says in a recording of the 911 call, “My son’s not breathing. A year and a half. Oh my god. He just had his eyes open. Oh my god, Sebastian.” However, the investigators have said that the toddler was dead one to two hours before his dad contacted authorities.
Soon after the call, an officer quickly went to the scene alongside OBPD; however, they couldn’t confirm CPR as the toddler’s body had already gone into rigor mortis, Chitwood stated. Being Unresponsive, the 18-month-old was immediately then taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 3:30 p.m.
Reports say that the temperature the toddler was at a whopping over 107 degrees when he came to the hospital, followed by medical personnel estimating the temperature in the vehicle, which peaked at 111 degrees. Following all these scenes going underway, there was some conflict seen in Scott’s account with the assessment of hospital staff, and he eventually went to Hanky Panky for drinks again, as per the sheriff.
Not only Scott, but his mom, too, reportedly stayed at the bar until “almost midnight,” he said. Witnesses from the bar said that the pair “didn’t seem as distraught as you would expect someone to be for the child having just passed,” one investigator said in the news briefing, adding that this “is consistent with the interactions that we had with [Scott] at the hospital.”
However, investigators also said that in the June 20 news briefing, they do not believe that Scott’s mother was aware of anything related to her grandson’s death at that point.
However, as per the police, he did confess to these, which came following he – “gave multiple false accounts of what occurred” the day of his son’s death, per the sheriff’s office.
“This father is a human piece of garbage,” Chitwood said during the news briefing. “And he’s a lying sack of s—.”
“There’s no logical reason why this little guy is dead,” Chitwood continued of the toddler, later adding that the situation “absolutely shocks the conscience.”
“We’ve seen it, people forget their kids in the back seat, but this was completely different,” the sheriff said. “This was intentional. That’s what the charges are for.”
