[justshutupandtakeit]

That does not seem right. Most car trunks are either open or closed and unless someone deliberately left it open or forgot to close it it will be locked.

Someone left that trunk open.

[MEGoody]

Someone left that trunk open.

Unless the car itself was unlocked, and it had one of those trunk opening buttons in the glove compartment. Kids might have been playing in the car and discovered the button.

[Trust but Verify]

The trunk was not open. The kids accessed the trunk by using the lever at the side of the driver's seat. The piston that would normally hold the trunk lid open was broken, so as soon as the lid was not being held up, it fell and latched, trapping the kids inside.

This is not a far-fetched scenario at all.

[hummingbird]

That does not seem right. Most car trunks are either open or closed and unless someone deliberately left it open or forgot to close it it will be locked.

It may depend on the year of the car. I think it was a Toyota Camry...don't know if there was ever a problem with their trunks but I seem to recall some automakers had to make safety feature corrections so that if someone did get stuck in a trunk, they could push a release from inside the trunk.

Its kind of like the Lane Hope Chests. They had to make a recall (or supply new latches) to a line of their chests because children could get in the chests while playing but couldn't release anything from inside once the top of the chest was closed.