Every year in the United States, many unfortunate children and adults become victims of trunk entrapments or "trunk crimes". Many trunk entrapments are accidental, as when children are playing and lock themselves inside, or when teenagers play pranks.

Car trunks are also used as "prisons on wheels" by criminals who take their victims to more secluded areas to rob, rape or kill them. Between 20% and 25% of the people locked alive inside the trunk of a car end up dead!

If you want to know the cold, hard facts about trunk entrapment, read our online factsheet compiled in association with the National SAFE KIDS Campaign.

Also on this page we have compiled a few actual cases where children and adults have been locked inside the trunk of a car, to show you that this crime occurs more often than you might think.

• Abducted Woman Uses Cell Phone to Assist Police

• Ex-astronaut's son found dead in car trunk AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- The young men were strangers, one an astronaut's son and the other a city employee. But they died together in the trunk of a submerged car, victims of what police say were unrelated carjackings.

• Deborah Groseclose was twenty-four years old and the mother of two small children. On a blistering hot June day, Deborah's husband let two men that he had hired into their home early in the morning, while Deborah was still asleep. These men raped her, beat her, forced her to bathe, then dress in her nurse's uniform. They stabbed her four times in the back, strangled her, then put her in the trunk of her car. They knew she was still alive when they abandoned her, because they heard her cries for help. After that gruesome period of torture that she had endured, she was left to literally cook to death in the heat of the trunk.

• Kidnapped Man in Car Trunk Dies © The Associated Press CHICAGO (AP) - A kidnap victim who called for help on his cell phone from the trunk of his car was found dead in the burning vehicle. Fidaro Richardson, 28, was kidnapped from his apartment late Monday or early Tuesday, police said. After his kidnappers locked him in the car trunk, Richardson phoned his girlfriend several times to tell her where he thought he was being taken, authorities said. The girlfriend then called 911 and gave police a description of the vehicle. The car was found with Richardson inside after police received a report Tuesday of a burning vehicle. Richardson died a short time later. No arrests had been made. AP-NY-06-16-99 1759EDT

• Sam's Club manager missing since store robbery may have been burned in car ... Investigators in Georgia and South Carolina are trying to establish a link between a robbery Sunday morning at the Sam's Club discount store on Bobby Jones Expressway and a body found in a burning car just north of the Savannah River.

• An ongoing court case in Wisconsin involving kidnapping, assault and trunk entrapment.

• Two convicted of kidnap, extortion of retired dentist, Third defendant guilty of lesser charges. A El Dorado County Superior Court jury convicted two defendants of kidnapping for ransom a man already conned out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

• The Ardmoreite OnlineDeaths of boys highlights efforts to get release ... - The deaths of two young boys trapped in a car trunk, weeks after the similar deaths of four New Mexico children, underscore what Greig and Janette Fennell have been pushing automakers and Congress to do for years:

• Philip C., a 16 year old, was abducted and placed in the trunk of his car for approximately five hours in the Florida summer heat. The temperature inside the trunk reached almost 140 degrees. When he was found, Philip was near death and had suffered severe brain damage. He was then in a deep coma for two weeks. At first the doctors gave little hope that he would survive, and said that if he did live, he would be a "vegetable." It is a miracle that Philip survived the ordeal. He continues with therapy and no one knows if he will ever fully recover.

• A 5 year old child was outside playing with a kitten after dinner. When his mother went out to bring him in for his bath, he was no where to be found. The family and law enforcement personnel searched all night. He was found the next afternoon with the kitten, locked in the trunk of their family car. He and his kitten died after being entombed in the trunk of the car. They were baked alive.

• Christy M. died of hyperthermia after being stuffed into the trunk of her car. The temperature in the trunk reached 175 degrees. The trunk lid was introduced into evidence and it clearly showed scratches on the underside, which were caused by her fi ngernails in her attempt to escape.

• Two boys, ages 3 and 4, accidentally locked themselves in the trunk of the family car. Detectives said temperatures in the trunk reached about 160 degrees before the grandfather of one of the boys realized they were missing. He eventually pried open the trunk to find the 4 year old dead.

• Susan R. was happy to "just be alive" after being robbed while working at a Clark gas station. After being stabbed in the chest with a "screwdriver-type thing," she was blindfolded and put in the trunk of her abductors' car.

• Police are still looking for the man who attacked a woman in her garage as her 4 year old daughter watched the entire ordeal. The attacker forced the mother into the trunk, locked it and left. The little girl ended up locking herself inside the car after her attempts to rescue her mother from the trunk failed. After 3 hours of being trapped in her car trunk, the woman was found by a relative and was immediately transported to the hospital.

• A 37 year old woman said that her faith in God enabled her to survive for eight days in the trunk of her abductors car. During that time she was raped repeatedly and slashed with a razor blade. Her captor finally left her for dead.

• Stephen S. was taken from his home in a car trunk to a remote location, and was later buried alive.

• A 39 year old woman was abducted, locked in the trunk of her car and taken to a location where she was raped by as many as four men.

• A 27 year old woman was accosted in her garage and locked in her car trunk for over 16 hours. During that ordeal she was repeatedly beaten and raped by her captor.

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