“I thought, This can’t wait,” Short later recalled. “If that baby was real, every second mattered.”
He grabbed his baton and smashed the window. The sound of shattering glass echoed across the parking lot as startled bystanders watched him reach in, brush aside the blanket, and lift what he believed was a lifeless child.
But what he saw next stopped him cold.
The baby’s skin didn’t feel right — too firm, too smooth. Its head was unnaturally cool to the touch. When Short tried to open the baby’s mouth to give CPR, it wouldn’t move. That’s when the truth hit him: the “baby” wasn’t human. It was a doll.
The Realization
Short described the moment as both disorienting and heartbreaking. “My heart just sank,” he said. “For a split second, I thought I was too late. Then I realized there was never a real baby at all.”
The doll, it turned out, was one of the increasingly popular “reborn dolls” — hyper-realistic baby dolls designed to look, feel, and even weigh like actual newborns. The craftsmanship was so convincing that even an experienced officer like Short had been fooled.
The call was canceled immediately. No child was in danger, but the bizarre scene left everyone shaken. What began as a potential tragedy had turned into one of the strangest rescues in recent police memory.
The Owner Steps Forward
Not long after the incident, the car’s owner returned to the parking lot. Her name was Carolynne Seiffert, a Keene resident known among local collectors for her lifelike doll collection. She had left the doll — which she named Ainslie — strapped into the car seat while she went for a haircut at a nearby Supercuts.
Seiffert explained that Ainslie was part of her personal hobby of collecting reborn dolls, which can sell for thousands of dollars. Each one is handcrafted from silicone and painted with incredible detail to replicate everything from skin tone to veins and eyelashes.
“I didn’t think anyone would mistake it for a real baby,” Seiffert said. “But looking back, I understand why it happened. It looks that real.”
The doll, she revealed, had cost her $2,300 and was one of several she owned. Some weighed as much as actual infants, complete with magnetic pacifiers and hand-rooted hair.
No Regrets for the Officer
Despite the misunderstanding, Lt. Short stood by his decision. “Given the situation, I’d do the same thing again,” he said. “If there’s even a chance a baby’s in danger, you act. You don’t have time to question what your eyes are telling you.”
Keene Police officials backed him completely. In a statement, the department emphasized that Short followed procedure and acted with urgency and compassion. “Our officers are trained to prioritize life,” the statement read. “It’s better to break a window than lose a child.”
Short admitted that the emotional toll was real. “For those few seconds, I thought I was holding a dead baby,” he said. “You don’t forget that feeling — ever.”
The Broader Lesson
The incident quickly went viral, shared by news outlets and social media across the U.S. Some people laughed at the absurdity of the situation. Others sympathized with the officer’s quick response. But beneath the humor, experts saw a powerful reminder of a deadly reality — children dying in hot cars.
According to child safety organizations, an average of 37 children die each year in the United States after being left in overheated vehicles. Temperatures inside a car can rise by 20 degrees in just ten minutes, even with the windows cracked. By 2016, several such deaths had already occurred that summer.
“Lt. Short’s reaction was the right one,” said Janette Fennell, founder of the safety group Kids and Cars. “Even though it turned out to be a doll, the instinct to act immediately is exactly what saves lives in real cases.”
A Strange New Reality
The incident also shined a spotlight on the niche but growing subculture of reborn doll collectors. The dolls, originally created as artistic expressions, have since found audiences ranging from collectors to individuals coping with grief or infertility. Their realism can be so striking that they’ve been mistaken for living infants multiple times — leading to public confusion and, occasionally, emergency responses like this one.
Seiffert said she never imagined her hobby would cause such chaos. After the incident, she began placing stickers on her car windows reading: “Reborn Dolls On Board — Not Real Children.”
“I don’t want this to happen again,” she told reporters. “I appreciate that the officer cared enough to act. I’d rather have a broken window than a tragedy.”
The Aftermath
Though the incident ended without injury, it left a lasting impression on everyone involved. For Short, the day became a strange mix of embarrassment, relief, and reflection. “It’s funny to people when they hear it,” he said, “but when you’re in that moment, you’re thinking about one thing — saving a life.”
Police Chief Brian Costa later praised his officer’s composure, noting that the department received dozens of supportive messages from residents. “People understood his heart was in the right place,” Costa said. “You can replace a window. You can’t replace a child.”
The Human Side of a Strange Story
Behind the headlines and viral jokes, there’s a deeper takeaway: instinct matters. In a time when hesitation can cost lives, Short’s immediate reaction reflected the kind of decisive thinking law enforcement is trained for.
Psychologists noted that such hyper-realistic dolls trigger powerful visual and emotional cues — so strong, in fact, that the human brain automatically perceives them as real infants. “When you see something that looks like a baby in distress, your body reacts before your logic does,” explained Dr. Lisa Goodwin, a cognitive scientist at Boston University. “It’s a survival response — not just for you, but for the species.”
The Story Lives On
Nearly a decade later, the story continues to circulate online, resurfacing every few years as a mix of humor and cautionary tale. It remains an example of how human empathy, even when misplaced, can lead to extraordinary moments.
In the end, no one was hurt — except for a car window and an officer’s pride. But the story serves as an odd but valuable reminder of two truths: that real tragedies involving children in hot cars still happen far too often, and that compassion, even when misdirected, is never wasted.
As for Carolynne Seiffert, she still collects reborn dolls, though she’s far more cautious about where she leaves them. “I understand how real they look,” she said. “But if someone’s willing to break a window to save what they think is a baby — that just means there are still people out there who care.”
And for Lt. Jason Short, one lesson remains clear: “If I had to choose between a broken car window and a baby’s life,” he said simply, “I’ll take the broken window every single time.”