Crying Baby Found Locked in Hotel Safe

Canadian police are on the lookout for a family from Brooklyn, NY, after their baby was found locked in a safe in a Niagara Falls hotel yesterday morning. The family called staff to a room at the Howard Johnson Hotel to free the infant, who was "alert and crying," police tell the CBC. A maintenance worker freed the baby after about 20 minutes, but the parents—who were "quite distraught," an officer says—checked out of the hotel with the child before police were called, report the Toronto Star and CTV News.

Staff members say a language barrier prevented them from finding out how the infant ended up in the safe, reports NBC News. "Police wish to locate the family to ascertain the welfare of the child," per a press release. "At this point we don't know if it's anything more than a preventable accident," an officer adds. Police say the safe was small: 20 inches wide, 14 inches tall, and 17 inches deep. The family was driving a 2015 gray Ford van with New Jersey plates, and US border services says the vehicle hasn’t crossed back into the US. "We do want to speak with them just to answer some of our questions," says a police rep. (More Canada stories.)