Latest news with #RegalCinema
The Sun
23-07-2025
- The Sun
Teen mom, 18, ‘locks crying daughter, 2, in car' to watch Smurfs movie at theater while temperatures soar to 94F
A TEEN mom left her baby in a car on a blazing hot day while she went and watched a kid's movie, according to police. The Florida mother went to the movie theater to watch Smurfs on Saturday when the incident occurred. 4 4 Tipora Merriex, 18, took her baby out of a Lake City Regal Cinema after the child kept on crying through the film, according to a statement from police. She then placed the 2-year-old in a 2002 Cadillac Escalade, leaving the child behind to finish the movie screening, police said. "Witnesses confirmed Merriex remained inside the building while the child remained alone in extreme heat conditions," the department wrote. Officials have said that the temperature outside was 94 degrees, with a heat index of 107. When police arrived at almost 6 p.m., the toddler was "visibly distressed." Officers had to break out a window to retrieve the child. Her daughter was "flushed, sweating, and crying" when she was removed from the vehicle, according to police. The baby had been in the car for at least 30 minutes. It then said that the teenager was "nonchalant" about the ordeal, and did not think that the incident was a "big deal," according to Law & Crime. Merriex was with her younger siblings at the time of the incident. Toddler, 1, left to die in hot car that hit 107 degrees while mom went for cosmetic procedure At one point, the report says that she had even sent them outside to check on the baby during the movie. She claimed that she accidentally locked herself out of the car. "Our officers acted swiftly to ensure the safety of this young child," Lake City Police Chief Gerald Butler said in a release. "Leaving a child unattended in a vehicle under these conditions is unacceptable." Data collected from 1998 to 2024 Since 1998, has tracked child deaths in hot cars, offering one of the most comprehensive databases on the issue. Researchers say the site, along with the nonprofit Kids and Car Safety, fills a crucial gap due to the absence of standardized reporting nationwide. The observation was highlighted in a study published last year in the journal Traffic Injury Prevention. Almost three-fourths of children who died of vehicular heatstroke, also known as vehicular hyperthermia, were 2 years old or younger. Although 53% had been forgotten in parked automobiles, 24% got into a vehicle on their own. The 10 states where pediatric vehicular heatstroke was most common are Alabama, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia. The mother was released from jail on Tuesday after being arrested for child neglect. "We are thankful the child is safe and urge all parents to prioritize the well-being of their child at all times," Butler said. When WJAX-TV went to the house after her arrest, her younger siblings told them that the baby was OK. Last year, 39 children died in hot cars, according to the National Safety Council. So far, 15 children have died in 2025 from being left in hot vehicles. The most common circumstance is that the child was forgotten in the car, according to data from 4
Daily Mirror
23-07-2025
- Daily Mirror
Mum 'locks crying toddler inside scorching 40C car while she goes to cinema'
An 18-year-old mum has been arrested after allegedly leaving her little girl inside a hot car unattended. Police say they had to smash the car window to free the 'distressed' child A teen mother locked her two-year-old daughter inside a blistering hot car so she could go and watch the new Smurfs film without interruption, police say. Tripura Merriex, 18, was allegedly frustrated that her child's "loud crying" was "disturbing" a cinema trip with her siblings, so proceeded to leave the little girl trapped in the hot car alone, while she carried on watching the movie. The alleged incident unfolded at the Regal Cinema in Lake City, Utah, on Saturday, where Merriex is said to have left her vulnerable tot in her 2002 Cadillac Escalade. The 18-year-old parent has been charged with felony child neglect, according to US police reports. Parents issued urgent heatwave car advice after five children die in just one month One-year-old baby dies in scorching hot 54C car while mum 'went to the spa' As temperatures skyrocketed to 40C, concerned witnesses called 911 to report Merriex and police were forced to bust a window to rescue the "distressed" child. In the arrest report, an officer said: "I applied a window break to the driver side window after observing the child in the front passenger seat." The toddler was "visibly distressed" when she was found trapped inside the vehicle, Law & Crime reports. Police allege that the two-year-old had "a flushed red appearance, was sweating profusely and was crying in distress". It is believed that the little girl was stuck inside the sweltering hot car for at least 30 minutes. When her mum eventually came out of the cinema, she was "very nonchalant", the police report claimed. Merriex claimed she "accidentally" locked her tot inside the car and "acted as though the whole situation wasn't a big deal as she just stood next to her vehicle", it said. The young mum said she initially brought her little girl out to the cinema lobby to keep her from "disrupting other movie viewers' experience," the report continued. After doing this "a few times", she allegedly ended up leaving her daughter alone in the car. She left the Smurfs film occasionally to go out and check on her daughter, police claim, and even allegedly tasked her siblings with taking it in turns to check on her. Merriex is reportedly being held at the Columbia County Jail on $50,000 (£36,9600) bond. "Our officers acted swiftly to ensure the safety of this young child," Chief of Police Gerald Butler said in a statement Monday. "Leaving a child unattended in a vehicle under these conditions is unacceptable. We are thankful the child is safe and urge all parents to prioritize the well-being of their children at all times." The two-year-old girl has recovered from the potentially fatal incident, according to her family who spoke to the local CBS station. It comes as another woman was arrested last monnth after allegedly leaving her two young children inside a parked car for more than two hours, resulting in the death of one child. In Bakersfield, California, officers responded to a report of a medical emergency at a business complex on South Real Road. Upon arrival, they discovered a one-year-old and a two-year-old unresponsive inside a vehicle. Police claim that the children had been left unattended while their mother, 20-year-old Maya Hernandez, was inside a spa. One of the children died from heat-related injuries, while the other was taken to a hospital and is in stable condition. So far this year, 15 children have tragically died in the United States after being left alone in vehicles, including in California, Florida, Louisiana, Maryland, New Mexico, New Jersey, and North Carolina. According to Kids and Car Safety, a non-profit organisation dedicated to protecting children and pets in motor vehicles, the number of child hot car deaths for 2024 was 39
New York Post
23-07-2025
- New York Post
Mother locks crying child, 2, in sweltering car so she could watch ‘Smurfs' movie undisturbed: cops
An 18-year-old Utah mother locked her crying 2-year-old child in a sweltering car so she could watch the 'Smurfs' movie at a theater undisturbed, according to local police. Tripura Merriex pulled her crying daughter out of a showing of 'Smurfs' at the Regal Cinema in Lake City, Utah, on Saturday — and placed her in a 2002 Cadillac Escalade after failing to console the tot, according to CBS47. Temperatures reached 94 degrees with a heat index of 107 degrees Saturday in Utah, the Lake City Police Department said in a statement. Advertisement Tripura Mirriex, 18, is accused of locking her 2-year-old child in a hot car so that she could watch the 'Smurfs' movie undisturbed. Columbia County Jail Responding police officers busted in through a window of the Cadillac and found the child was 'sweating profusely and was crying in distress,' Law and Crime reported. When Mirriex emerged from the movie theater, she attempted to brush off concern, behaved 'very nonchalant,' and 'acted as though the whole situation wasn't a big deal as she just stood next to her vehicle,' the police report stated. Advertisement The callous cinephile claimed to have simply forgotten her young daughter in the car momentarily — but witnesses painted a different picture. Mirriex, who attended the movie with her younger brother and sister, purposefully put the child in the sweltering SUV and periodically checked on the kid as the movie played, according to a witness cited by CBS47. A movie theater employee stated that Mirriex purposefully put the child in the car and periodically visited the SUV during the film. Google Maps She even sent her siblings to check on her child while staying in the cool theater to watch 'Smurfs,' Law and Crime reported, citing a Regal Cinemas employee. Advertisement Mirriex was arrested and charged with felony child neglect and remains booked in Columbia County Jail, according to reports. The 2-year-old child has recovered from what could have been a fatal incident and is doing OK, the family told the local CBS affiliate station. So far this year, at least 15 children have died after being left in hot cars in the US, according to the National Safety Council. An average of 37 children under the age of 15 die each year from heatstroke in vehicles.
Indian Express
13-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Indian Express
Mahesh Bhatt pens a poem remembering Raj Khosla: ‘The Light That Lingers'
On Raj Khosla's birth centenary, Mahesh Bhatt pens a special poem for the filmmaker. Khosla helmed films such as C.I.D., Do Raaste, Main Tulsi Tere Aangan Ki, Bombai Ka Babu, Woh Kaun Thi and Mera Gaon Mera Desh. 2025. First quarter of the second century of cinema. They're screening his films again. Regal Cinema. An old hall. The velvet is dull. The walls are cracked. Dust floats in the light. The air smells of time. The screen waits. It doesn't shine like it used to. Streaming has taken over. Theatres are kings without kingdoms. And still—here we are. I'm the guest of honour. Asha Parekh will be here soon. Once, the face on every poster. Now, a medal on her chest. Reverence in every greeting. I sit and wait. We're here to honour the brilliance of one of the most underrated filmmakers India ever had. Thanks to the Film Heritage Foundation— founded by Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, a man on a mission to rescue our fading cinematic memory. And as I wait, something inside me shifts. 1969. I was twenty. Rubber slippers. Tight pants. No money. A head full of storm. I wanted to make films. I didn't know how. At Mehboob Studio, the watchman stopped me. 'You don't belong here,' he said. I said a name — Raj Khosla. I hadn't met him, but I knew him. Something in the way I said it opened the gate. Inside, the air smelled of sweat and paint. Cables on the floor. Men shouting. Dreams being built— not dreamt. Built. His office was cold with air-conditioning. He'd just woken up. Looked at me like a face from a dream he couldn't place. 'Know anything about filmmaking?' he asked. 'No.' He smiled—small, sideways. 'Zero's a good place to start.' That was it. That's how I began. I stayed a short while. But I saw enough. How a film is made— Not wished into being. Wrestled in. Through heat and silence and rage. We made a film. Later, they called it the first Eastern Western. We called it madness. Sand. Heat. Guns that jammed. Stars who bled. Then I left. We all do. I failed first. Then, somehow, I didn't. Four hits in a row. The applause came. I smiled. But the sound never reached me. He, meanwhile, had begun to vanish. Even the brightest lights fade. One night—Sea Rock Hotel. Terrace. Stars above. Music below. He stood alone. Hands in his pockets. Looking out at the sea like it had stolen something from him. I walked up. 'Get me a drink,' he said. I did. Because some men stay taller than time. He looked at me. 'So—how does it feel? Being on top?' I said, 'I didn't ask for this.' He laughed. Not kindly. 'You? Four hits and still restless? Try being the man who once had it all and now begs for one last sip of relevance.' Then he looked beyond the lights— toward something only he could see. 'Fame is starlight,' he said. 'The glow of something already dead. You see the shine— but the star is gone.' I never forgot. I couldn't. Now the young come. They speak with fire in their throats. I listen. And when I speak— they don't just hear me. They hear him. The man who let me in. The man who said zero. They don't know his name. But they carry it—like I did. He is gone. But the light is still here. The hall stirs. She walks in. Applause cracks through the dust. We take the stage. A question comes: 'What did your master leave you that lasted?' I close my eyes. See his face. Hear his voice. 'Zero,' I say. 'That's where I began.' They nod. They think I'm wise. They think I know. But I don't. And that's the truth. To stay in this work— to stay in this life— you have to live with not knowing. The old sages knew it: Not this. Not that. Not even this. What remains isn't certainty. It's the light. The kind that flickers. The kind that stays. I don't direct anymore. Don't chase stories. I'm quiet now. Like a volcano that once burned. Now still. Still warm. I mentor the thirsty, the talented. The young come. They burn. I listen. I guide. I hand them the match. Let them strike it. That's enough. So I say it again— for the ones still outside the gate: Fame is starlight. Beautiful. Distant. Already gone. Let it guide you. Let it burn you. Then let it go. And when your time comes— Start from zero. Stand in the not-knowing. Speak only what's true. And pass it on.
Yahoo
09-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Developer wants to turn Regal Kiln Creek into Newport News housing
Real estate developer Brad Waitzer knows the dire need for more housing in Hampton Roads. The president of Virginia Beach-based Signature Management Corporation has developed more than 8,000 housing units over the course of his 37-year career. And now he has his eye on the Regal Cinema building and surrounding property at 100 Regal Way in the Kiln Creek area of Newport News. 'It was actively marketed for redevelopment by the owners,' Waitzer said. Regal Cinemas did not respond to email or phone calls requesting information about the impending sale. Originally part of the Kiln Creek development, it is down the street from a mixed-use development called Commonwealth Green. 'That particular quadrant is an area that was developed commercially and like most commercial developments it has suffered vacancy and continues to suffer very high vacancy,' Waitzer said. By providing some population within walking distance to restaurants and retail, Waitzer feels it can help with the struggling market. Zoned as C-1, the property is in the city's comprehensive plan for multi-family houses, Waitzer said. Waitzer has it under contract to purchase, rezone and redevelop the 13-acre property, which includes more than 8 acres south of Regal Way and just under 5 acres on the north side. The proposed project — with a price tag of $95 million — includes a total of seven three- and four-story apartment buildings and a two-story townhouse totaling 327 one-, two- and three-bedroom units. There will also be a single-story clubhouse with a fitness and business center and a dog park. 'In addition to providing much-needed housing, the community will revitalize a long-struggling commercial area, greatly increase green space and improve walkability and connectivity with nearby properties,' Waitzer said. The plan also includes putting in well-lit, landscaped sidewalks along Commonwealth Drive and Regal Avenues, he said. 'Additionally, it will provide a park with seating and public art at the main intersection for everyone to enjoy,' Waitzer said. If all goes as planned, it will be approximately 2½ years before the project comes to fruition, he said. He stressed that they are a local company, with no outside investors and the principals are involved in the day-to-day operations of all of their properties. Lifehouse Church, a portable church in Newport News, holds two Sunday morning services in the theater. Pastor John Ware said they will continue to worship there until the dirt is moved and then they will seek other options. An open house community meeting was held on June 5 at Regal Kiln Creek to provide information, collect feedback and address concerns. Regal Kiln Creek opened in November 1994 with 14 screens and underwent an expansion adding six more screens 5 years later. Sandra J. Pennecke, 757-652-5836,
