Sarah Philbrick left toddlers inside freezing car, drank at Hopkins bar, left in taxi

Confronted by police, Philbrick allegedly mistook her niece and nephew for dogs.

Sarah Philbrick faces two gross misdemeanor counts of child endangerment after allegedly leaving two toddlers inside her freezing car while she drank at Lindee's Saloon in Hopkins on Sunday evening.

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According to bar employees, Philbrick, 55, had an Iron Butterfly and a Long Island Ice Tea. She then left in a taxi, but thankfully, an employee came across the toddlers and brought them inside before they suffered injuries.

Philbrick is the great aunt of the 2-year-old boy and the 3-year-old girl she left in her station wagon.

From Fox 9:

Lauren Dickover was waiting tables at Lindee's Saloon and Eatery when her manager left work at about 7:45 p.m. on Sunday night, but she quickly returned from the parking lot with a discovery that got everyone's attention.

"She said, 'There's two children in a station wagon. The car is off and the back window is busted open. Whose car is it? We need to find out who this is,'" Dickover recalled.

That manager said she heard a child cough and saw the two tots strapped into their car seats through the dark, tinted windows. The children were alone, locked inside the car while temperatures hovered around 25 degrees. The 3-year-old girl was asking for her "Aunt Sarah."...

Employees from Lindee's Saloon brought the kids inside, made them some grilled cheese sandwiches, gave them crayons and coloring paper and helped them to the bathroom.

"We tried to just comfort them as best as possible considering the situation," said Dickover.

Even so, Sgt. Mike Glassberg, with the Hopkins Police Department, says the children were cold to the touch when police arrived.

"Had this person, in my opinion,not played the role of a hero, something very bad could have happened to those children," Glassberg said.

After downing two drinks, Philbrick hopped a taxi. But her cab ride didn't go so well. From the Star Tribune (emphasis mine):

At some point Philbrick returned to Lindee's. The cabdriver was angry because Philbrick did not know where she wanted to go, charges said. Philbrick was allegedly red-faced, slurred her speech and stumbled as she walked. When police asked her about leaving the children in the car, she allegedly said: "I have two dogs."

Philbrick's husband told Fox his wife is an alcoholic. She hasn't been arrested before, and he said he hopes this incident will help her get her life turned around.