5-year-old left on hot bus outside daycare center for hours

HOUSTON -- (WXIX) -- Jeremiah, 5, spent some of the afternoon locked in a school bus outside his daycare center while he watched other children play as he tried to pry open the door.

He thought he had been forgotten.

“I thought my mama wasn't going to come forever,” he said.

Jennifer Swanson's heart breaks when she hears those words – when she went to pick up her son at 5 p.m., the daycare workers couldn't find him.

She questioned the workers and the director, and none of them knew where he was. She got in her car and rushed to the school where Jeremiah got picked up that day.

While she was gone, the daycare workers found him on the bus. Jeremiah was sweaty, but OK.

His mom can't help but think of what could have happened.

“I think the only reason something didn't happen was because it wasn't 100 degrees outside,” she said, voice cracking.

The daycare self-reported the incident and apologized, Swanson said. But they didn't speak to reporters.