When officers arrived at a Manitowoc, Wisconsin nail salon on a July afternoon, they found something that would disturb any parent: three children between the ages of 1 and 2 — all in the care of the same babysitter — sitting alone in a parked, unrunning SUV. Their caretaker was inside, getting her nails done.
She had been there for nearly an hour and a half.
On Monday, that babysitter — 24-year-old Hannah Sprang — was sentenced in Manitowoc County Circuit Court. She will serve no jail time.
“Even today, there are moments when we pull into a parking spot and he says, ‘Don’t leave me in here.'”
Those words, read aloud in the courtroom from a statement written by the parents of one of the 2-year-old victims, paint a picture of how lasting the damage can be — even when the physical harm is hard to measure. The interior of the vehicle measured 81.1°F on a 69°F day, with no engine running and no air circulation.
Judge Bob Dewane sentenced Sprang to probation after she pleaded no contest to three counts of child neglect. Under a plea agreement, two felony counts were reduced to misdemeanors. A third felony count was deferred for three years — and if Sprang meets all court conditions, it will eventually be dismissed entirely.
Key facts in this case
- Three toddlers, ages 1–2, left unattended in a non-running vehicle
- Interior temperature reached 81.1°F while outside was 69°F
- Total time alone in vehicle: 1 hour and 28 minutes
- Sprang claimed she checked on the children “several times” — surveillance showed only once
- Sentence: probation, with a permanent ban on babysitting or daycare services
Among the conditions of her sentence is a permanent ban on offering “babysitting or day care services” — a restriction that will follow her for life.
What made the case especially troubling, according to investigators, was not just what Sprang did — but how she responded when confronted about it. Police described her as “unfazed” at every turn: upon initial contact, after being shown that her account didn’t match the surveillance footage, and even when told she had provided misinformation to officers.
The surveillance footage from the salon was damning. Sprang had told police she arrived late for her appointment and had checked on the children “several times.” The footage told a different story: she sat down in the nail chair at 10:49 a.m. and didn’t get up to check on the children until 11:49 a.m. — exactly one hour later. She returned to the salon and didn’t leave again until 12:17 p.m., when she spotted a police cruiser parked behind her vehicle in the lot.
Officers also noted that Sprang was uncooperative when asked for the children’s families’ contact information, repeatedly texting and calling parents before police could reach them — something investigators interpreted as an attempt to get ahead of the story before authorities could speak with them directly.
“Hannah appeared to be unfazed by this information.”
— Police probable cause affidavit
For the families of the three children, the plea deal may feel incomplete. The parents’ courtroom statement made clear that for at least one child, the incident wasn’t just a bad afternoon — it became a fear that has followed him home, into everyday moments, into parking lots.
Child safety experts note that heat-related danger in vehicles is often misunderstood by the public. Even on a mild day, a closed car can warm quickly, and the risk to young children — whose bodies heat up three to five times faster than adults — is disproportionately high. The 69°F outdoor temperature may have prevented a medical emergency in this case, but the psychological impact on the children was real and documented.
Sprang’s case now closes with probation, a clean felony record on the horizon, and a court-ordered career change. For the toddler who still whispers in parking lots, the chapter may not close quite so cleanly.
