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Prisoners use lock-picking skills to rescue baby trapped inside car

A group of prison inmates on day release have been praised after they broke into a car to rescue a toddler who had been locked inside.

The prisoners had been doing construction work on a road near Tampa, Florida, when a father accidentally locked his car keys, and one-year-old daughter, inside his SUV on Thursday.

As he and the baby’s mother, Shadow Lantry, began to panic a crowd formed, which attracted the attention of sheriff’s deputies, who were guarding the inmates.

The group, wearing their distinctive striped prison uniforms, then rushed to help free the infant.

The whole episode was filmed by Ms Lantry, who later posted the footage online.

Using a wire coat hanger, the small group of offenders can be seen levering open the front door of the vehicle.

While the clearly practised felons got to work, the police officers encouraged the baby’s father to continue talking to his daughter through the glass so she was not alarmed by the commotion and strange faces.

Ms Lantry said in her video it took the inmates only a few minutes to pop open the doors and release the unperturbed child.

“[We were] surprised when somebody had a wire coat hanger, [and] we were able to get the door open enough to get it in there, unlock the door,” Richard Stanger, from the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office, told local media.

His colleague Chris Nocco added: “Our trustees are people who have made mistakes, we’re trying to rehabilitate them to get back into society.

“A lot of them, like these individuals, they know they made bad mistakes, bad choices, but they want to do the right thing in life.”

Despite having such a unique “skillset”, Mr Nocco joked they must not use their abilities to break into cars again, unless given permission by law enforcement.

Once the baby was freed the crowd which had gathered around the vehicle to watch the drama erupted into celebration.

“Thank God for the criminals in the world. I respect all y’all,” Ms Lantry added.

The parents also confirmed their daughter was unharmed by her short stay inside the locked car.