An employee at the Country Inn and Suites heard the child crying and called police. The employee said car was parked in the lot for 30 minutes to an hour Saturday evening.

As police investigated the owner of the car arrived and told officers he didn’t know the boy was in the vehicle when he parked it. The child’s mother is the man’s girlfriend.

Police spokesman Sam Clemens says the child wasn’t harmed. The Department of Social Services took custody of the boy because his mother could not immediately be found.