
True Crime Connections ~ Advocacy Podcast
True Crime Connections is a podcast and survivor-led platform where stories of abuse, trauma, and resilience are shared with raw honesty and purpose.
We exist to break cycles of silence and shame by giving survivors the microphone — and turning their lived experiences into sparks of hope and healing for others.
Whether you're questioning your past, grieving what you lost, or reclaiming who you are, this is your place to be seen, heard, and reminded:
You’re not alone. And your story isn’t over
True Crime Connections ~ Advocacy Podcast
The Deadly Mistake Every Parent Thinks They’ll Never Make
Did you know your brain can only hold 7–8 things at once? That’s why even the most loving parent can make one fatal mistake—and forget their child in the car.
In this powerful and emotional episode, Tiffanie speaks with Michael Israel, co-founder of CleverElly, a company built by tech dads who wanted to save lives. Michael explains the terrifying reality of hot car deaths, the simple science behind why it happens, and how CleverElly’s low-cost reminder device is making a massive impact.
We’re not just talking about statistics—we’re talking about babies. Over 1,000 children have died this way since 1998, and it’s 100% preventable.
Tune in to learn:
✅Why does this happen to "good" parents
✅How your memory works against you
✅What you can do today to build life-saving habits
✅How CleverElly's $35 tool is changing lives
If you’re a parent, caregiver, or know someone who is—this episode is a must-listen.
How to find:
10 Things About You: Self-Exploration Journal
https://www.amazon.com/shop/truecrimeconnectionspodcast
htpps://www.truecrimeconnections.com
https://www.instagram.com/truecrimeconnectionspodcast/
www.tiktok.com/@truecrimeconnections
Most parents swear they never forget their kid in the car, but it happens every year. Did you know that on an average 37 children die in hot cars annually and most are under the age of two? This episode could save a life, maybe even your child's.
Most people would tell you that they would never forget their kid in their car. But did you know on average, 37 children. Die in a car a year.
That is crazy. Just to think of such a simple act kills so many children within a year. This is true crime connection. So welcome or welcome back. I'm Tiffanie, your host, and joining us today is Michael Israel and he's here to share just how we can prevent this. So Michael, I wanna thank you so much for being here.
Thank you for having me on the show. I'm really excited to get into it and, and have a chat about this today and yeah, I really appreciate your time in, in allowing a space for something like this.
This is important., When you think about 37 lives a year like some people be like, that's not a lot. Well, since 1998 there's been over a thousand children who have died this way. These are still children, and it's an easy fix.
Yeah, and I'd also like to throw in there that I think what people are forgetting or don't realize is these aren't just children. These are often babies, often under the age of two. These are, these are babies. And, , the way they are dying is very preventable. And because of that, I, I think that strikes home a lot more.
The other thing I wanted to speak about is not just the deaths, but this happens in a lot of other ways. I. Like if a baby is left in a hot car and a fire, , emergency service responder comes out and rescues that baby out of that hot car, often on paper, that's a win. But often in reality, it's still not a good outcome.
I mean, obviously it's better than a fatality, but if that baby has brain damage or that baby has whatever other illness or sickness or later on in life, that is still a terrible outcome and. Often it's not tracked, it will never be tracked. And we don't know where it came from or what it came from, but there is a lot of damage that can be done to the brain and the physical body from being left in a
boiling hot .
Or freezing cold car that isn't spoken about. while I'm on that, I'll quickly speak about that. , In summer, obviously it is the most dangerous time of the year. July is the most dangerous time of the year for this issue. However. During the winter, it is also extremely dangerous. Last year in the States, we saw deaths in every single month of the year. And, I just wanna point out there that, you know, this isn't just a summer issue. Babies freeze to death or on an averagely warm day this can happen. Or an averagely cool day, this can happen too, and it is never okay to leave your child in a car. And, , that's what, , we are here to discuss and talk about in different ways.
I'm from cleverly, so I wanted to touch a little bit onto the organization, how we came around , and what we're doing.
I love what you're doing. Yeah,
if you'd like, should I start with the story of how, how we came around? I.
absolutely.
So
So.
was founded, , by a group of three dads seven years ago, and around seven or eight years ago, he, he found out about babies dying in hot cars from his wife and his wife told him that, you know, this happens and it's really serious and whatnot. And he, he like laughed it off. He was like, are you kidding me?
Who forgets their kid in the back of a hot car. That is crazy. That is ridiculous. And he didn't take it seriously at all. His wife told him, no, this isn't funny at all. This happens a lot and it's extremely dangerous. And because you don't think it will happen to you and because of your lifestyle, you are actually very, very highly at risk of this happening to you. And he didn't think much of it. then fast forward a few months and a few months later, he was driving into the office with his son in the backseat. He looked in his rear view mirror and he realized his son was there. 'cause originally he didn't realize that, and, , he simply did a U-turn, went back to childcare, dropped off his son, but it hit him that this is the memory lapse that everyone's been talking about. know, this is it. It was just more of an unfortunate circumstance. You know, he was on his way to childcare. He got some important work call. He was super busy in whatever he was he was doing. He loves his child. He didn't think for a second he could forget his child, but he was in autopilot. You know, something came up.
That was what he was dealing with the day before. And in that morning, he just started driving towards the office because that's what he does. , And in itself, that situation wasn't dangerous. You know, he just did it. You turn, went back to childcare, dropped off his son. Everything was fine, but. Afterwards, it really hit him.
You know, what if he didn't look in the rear view mirror? What if he got to work and went up for the day? What if he came back out at lunchtime or the end of the day? What if instead of going to the work he, you know, he was really busy on, on going to grab groceries from the supermarket or whatever other mundane task needed to be done. And he started looking into this and he realized that it happens to professionals a lot and it happens to higher class people a lot. And the reason why was because when he looked into it, he realized and learnt the science behind it. And it was that our brains can only hold seven or eight bits of information at a time.
So as new information enters, simply put old information, we'll leave your brain and there's nothing you can do about it, you know? So unless you get a reminder via a. Thought, a smell, a touch. , As you're leaving the car, you hear the baby crying, you, whatever it is you remember. But if you don't have one of those reminders in any form, you simply put will forget.
And that really shook him and he started looking into it because, you know, like it's, it's very possible for that to happen. And it's possible and it does happen. To all parents really. , Maybe the majority, if not all, but I, I believe to all parents really. 'cause you know, there are times where you're focused on one child, then you are focused on parking the car or the social interaction that's going on in front of you.
At the same time you're focusing on your day and you're thinking about whatever you are thinking about. And you know, it, it's very quick to get up to seven or eight bits of information in your brain at that one time and very easy to forget. the fortunate. Thing is that often it doesn't result in a fatality, and we're extremely lucky for that.
You know, maybe we forget, but then we, we take a step out the car and then two seconds later we remember, we think about them, we hear them, we smell them, we see them. Whatever it is, some something in our brain triggers us to remember. That they're, that they're there, and often that's the case. The problem is what happens that one time where it's not the case. So He got together with his friends. He started looking into this and he started looking into how often this happens and, and why it happens and how it happens. And he realized that no one was doing much at the time, so he created the Clever Rally. Since then, there has been seven or eight versions of it.
, The guys all came from really tech backgrounds. , Two of them run their own tech businesses to today. , One, the other one, , works within the, the tech industry as well, and still does that today as well. But on the side, they created this organization cleverly to help parents remember to build the habit of checking the backseat. So that's how the organization came around and, and how, , they, they started up on everything. , But into what device they were gonna build. So originally they wanted to build like the most techie, the most advanced detection system. You know, that lets you know every single time that a child is there. But they realized a few things from GoFundMe and research groups they did early on was that parents didn't want this. And that was for a few reasons. One, , parents weren't willing to spend three, four, $500 on a device for this. It's not because they wouldn't spend three, four, $500 on a device to potentially save their child's life. It was that. It's like an in minutes of guilt. I need a three, four, $500 device to remind me my child's in the backseat when they already don't think it's gonna happen to them on that. Like when we used to go to expos back in the day, people would laugh in our face. They'd call us stupid, that'd say, this is ridiculous.
That'd say What has society come to? A lot of people were very angry that this happens and didn't. willing to accept that this happens. Now, when we go to expos, you know, this stuff is in the media all the time. Everyone knows this stuff consistently happens every single year. But when we go to expos, people still don't think it'll happen to them.
They'll go, oh, this could never happen to me, but my partner, but my mom, but my dad, but my, whoever takes the kids on that off occasion, I can see it happening to them. But to me, no, never. And we realized that. This will always be against human nature to a, accept that this can happen to them. So we realized it.
It can't be expensive for that reason. try to incorporate a second use case. So you know, you're not just buying this, you're buying a charger, and then with the charger comes this added little feature, even though that's the main functionality of the device. , And then on, on top of that, . The other thing we realized is that need to be simple.
Parents told us they're not willing to go to a mechanic. They're not willing to get this device serviced. They're not willing to download sign up accounts and, and do all these complicated things. So over the past years, we've just been making it more simple and more simple and more simple and more affordable, and more affordable and more affordable in whichever ways we can do that. we believe over the ti over the years that we've learned that we've really figured out what. Needs to be done to fix this issue, and that is to help parents build the habit of checking the backseat. We don't wanna become reliant on the technology. You know, these incidents often occur when there's a change in routine.
So what happens if your car's at the mechanic or what happens if you're on vacation or what happens when you know there is that change in routine if you're relying on that technology or even less likely to remember because you think the tech has it covered. What happens if the batteries die? What happens if, you know, it's just a faulty unit that that happens and we can't prevent that.
No one can. So, , cleverly is a tool to help you build the habit of always checking the backseat. So it, it simply put, it plugs into the socket outlet cigarette lighter. And then every single time you exit the vehicle, it outputs a randomized voice to check the backseat every single time you exit the car. And it is that simple. So, you know, the installation takes a few seconds and then you don't do anything. You just plug it in and that's it. Another thing we like to advocate for is simply talking about this because, like I was saying. There's the seven to eight bits of information our brains can hold. So, you know, just, just speaking about this issue, speaking about the statistics around this, which I'll get into speaking about the fact that our brains can hold seven or eight bits of information, increases our chances of thinking about that conversation when we're exiting the car.
'cause you know, you're, you're driving through the car and you, you realize that, you know out my brain can only hold seven or eight bits of information. There's a chance, I forget my kid in the back of the car. You think about that while you're exiting the car and then you remember to check the backseat.
So. helps a lot. Conversations help a lot. And, , yeah, that's, that's why we came around, how we came around, , and, and what we're doing. So the device, like I said, it plugs into the cigarette lighter. , And then also as technology has evolved, we now include a door sensor as well. And some of the newer cars, they retain power to the socket outlet. So then every time you open the driver door, , it outputs a message and the, the door sensor comes with instructions and a video of someone installing it. But essentially you just put the tape on. Put the tape onto the door and stick it on. And then every time you open the door, it triggers the unit. You do it once off, it takes a few minutes and, and that's it. , And yeah, that's, that's how it all works. , And yeah,
It's very interesting. , What was it? In February I was in Indianapolis and I went to Advocacy Con and we rented a car and that was the first time I had seen an alert on the car. I. To check the back seat. And I was like, what the heck is this little thing? And then I read it. I was like, oh. I was just like, all right, I get it.
So, I mean, obviously people know this is a thing because now cars are being made with it. Now I know that means they can easily turn that off, I'm sure. But.
I'm glad you mentioned that because that is something we speak about often. , I think that the fact that car manufacturers legislated this, it's actually legislated that all cars from 2025 have a reminder in some form shows what a serious issue this is. I. it being a serious issue. , There's a couple statistics I'll talk about in a second, but, , know, the fact that they, that legally to pass like a legislation in America is no easy task.
So the fact that legally car manufacturers have to have something, I think shows how important it is. However, I think it's just a first step. You know, we have parents all the time come to us, say it's a text on the dashboard, or it's a monotone voice, or it's something like this. You know, I think the car manufacturers are simply just saying as a first step. they have to do something and they're just doing it. They're not necessarily doing it in the best possible way because parents come to us and say, you know, it's like a notification on my phone. I don't recognize this. I don't remember this. It's, it's barely present. , And I think it just shows how much more work needs to be done in this, because. see over time that I don't think that legislation will, you know, fix the issue. I think it's a good first step. I think it's a massive first step. I think it brings a lot of awareness and light to how serious this issue is. But, , I don't think in itself it will fix this issue. on that as well, I wanted to say in the states, you guys don't record rescues, like where a, a child is rescued from a, from a car. But in Australia, where I'm from, , we do, and in Australia there are over 5,000 rescues every single year related to babies in cars. in the states, you guys are at least 13 times more populated than us. And also we believe from other metrics that this happens more in the states than it does in Australia. would estimate that there is at least 65,000 rescues related to this in the US every single year. So if that doesn't show how relatable this is to parents, , I think it that speaks for itself. You know, this happens all the time and we like to speak about those rescues a lot because like I said, they're not fortunate outcomes.
They're things we should be discussing and there are things we should be lowering. The statistics of, , yeah, that's, that's I think a really important aspect on that. , But yeah, the, the fact that car manufacturers have legislated this, I think is awesome. I'm not, I'm not anti that at all. , I, I, I just think it's the first step.
I don't think it's the entire solution to this because we've had so many parents come to us and say, you know, I turn it off or it doesn't help. Or after a week it's gone. , And a lot of those parents end up buying our devices and telling us how thankful they are that we make this because, you know, it, that what they have right now in, in their newer car doesn't help.
Right. It was just the first time I had ever seen that, so it like threw me off for a minute and I was like, oh, we bougie because my car don't have this. But what I really like about it is, and it's sad, but one of the statistics that I got was 21.8% of these child deaths. We're done on purpose. And so if we can crack down on the parents that think this is gonna be their way out of parenthood, like that's not an excuse.
You can't do that anymore.
So I think out of that 21% that have done it on purpose, I think education comes into that. For some of them, I dunno the statistics of that, obviously because they're not recorded, but, , you know, outta that 21%, I think there's education that needs to go around. Hey, leaving your kid in the car, like you said is not acceptable because this is what happens in just a few minutes.
I think a lot of parents don't realize. The effects of just a few minutes. I think, you know, I'm just going into the supermarket. I'd much rather it be in a bit of peace and quiet, , and, and leave my baby in the back. But, you know, a few minutes is all it takes. So leaving your child for even one minute is not acceptable for any amount of time is not acceptable. I think education comes into that and I hope that that relates to the vast, like a, a high percentage of that 21%. , That's, yeah, that's what I'd have to say on, on that.
Right. , I definitely do think that, you know, maybe they were intentionally left, but yeah, there wasn't. They weren't planning on harm, but there's a percentage of those that were looking for harm. So unfortunately, and I also read that, oh well, right. There's no help for them. But it's that a car can heat up 19 degrees in just 10 minutes.
That's crazy.
And the crazy part about that, that is, that's not zero to 19 often that is, , from the temperature outside. So, you know, it, it, I don't know the exact minutes 'cause I haven't calculated exactly. 'cause it depends on the car and the spacing of the car and whatnot. But, you know, if it's a hundred out, then potentially it's 119 inside that car after a few minutes. So. You can very much cook inside that. I've seen this video actually, , I can't remember where it was. Someone had sent it to me where they put, , eggs inside a car and they watched the eggs cook. They put eggs in oil inside the car, just on a frying pan. And then they came back after however many minutes it was, and the eggs were cooked. They were literally ready to eat. And uh,
Oh my God.
really how hot it gets in a car. There's people who have done a few different ones. I think one I saw with, , what was it? , Ah, like a schnitzel, like, uh, like chicken and, and they came back and it was cooked.
Oh, that's no easy feat too. Eggs. Okay. Uh, chicken. Yeah. No, that's crazy.
yeah.
Yeah.
I've seen as well that this happens in other ways as well. Like, , the relatability part of what I was speaking about, , relates to, you know, I. We all forget in different ways. , I want parents to make this relatable to them. You know, we've all forgotten our keys. We've all forgotten our wallet.
I heard a story the other day of a mom who was driving down the freeway. She stopped, , went to the bathroom with her child, got back in the car, kept driving 70 miles later, realized. That the child wasn't in the car, but was still in the bathroom back at the stop off on the freeway. Someone local had called the local sheriff or police or whatever it was.
, Got in touch with her. She obviously headed straight back and it was fully unintentional. Like she fully just didn't realize she had the music playing or whatever she was doing. This happens, this really happens. And I think that this happens a lot more often than people realize. And a lot of these incidents don't make the news.
They don't make the headlines. You know, you only often hear about it if it's a death, but if it's just because it's not a death doesn't mean it's not happening. And I think those incidents, you know, they're happening daily, often, like many times a day. And we should be speaking about them more.
I like that you said that just because they're not death doesn't mean it's not happening. Like it doesn't have to be all over your TV to say, oh, I guess there isn't any. No. I mean, just in 2025 alone, this year there's already been 11, so. It happens.
days, kids in cars just published that. There've been five deaths in the last eight days
Wow,
Yeah.
that's crazy. I don't know. According to the National Safety Control, it's an 11th death in 2025 so far that occurred in Florida, California, Louisiana, Maryland, New Mexico, New Jersey, and North Carolina. But they're probably not all reported.
is all of the deaths fall into the category. Sometimes the deaths fall into. had a preexisting medical condition or something like that. They, they sometimes don't categorize the deaths in this field, even if it was related to this field. I mean, again, I wouldn't know how often that happens or anything like that, but there would be times where it's not correctly categorized. , Also indicating to the fact that it happens more often than you think. , And as AI and technology becomes more involved in our lives, as we become more distracted than ever. That also is why we're seeing an increase. You know, over the last eight years there's been so much awareness and education around this, but the statistics have grown, not shrunk and they are growing and , that's why I believe that we really need to be doing more around habit formation, around a change in behavior.
You know, we like to compare it to seat belts in the seventies. We actually look at like news articles and media articles from back then to now, and they're so similar. the beginning how people were like, I'm not wearing seat belts. That's ridiculous. Why would I put a belt over me? Is, and, and we compare it, but at the end of the day, it worked.
Seat belts fixed the issue. Yes, government intervened and created fines and whatnot for compliance. But people also realized and learned the statistics around it. There were people early days who, you know, created a seatbelt in their own form. . Cars were legislated to have it, or, you know, the second they came out, they were using those seat belts straight away because they knew it helped.
And, and those are kind of the people we're seeing today. Use cleverly. Those are the people we're seeing today who have built habits around this, who are taking this seriously. But we, we really wanna expedite the process of, of getting to the point where everyone. You have that habit built of always checking the backseat.
Yeah, maybe if like you put your wallet in the backseat. Well, you know, you can't go anywhere unless you get the wallet out. Just something to get you in the habit of looking behind you. I.
I think there's lots of great free things like that you can do. People say the same with your phone and things like that. I think a small issue is that. You know, then you gotta build the habit of putting your wallet on the backseat every single
Yeah.
in reality, I've found it a little bit impractical.
Like, , some people are able to do it, and if you can do that, you'll fix this issue. You know, if, if you can have that habit of putting that, but there, you don't need a device like cleverly, but. In reality, a lot of parents aren't gonna do that every single time and are gonna forget to do that often.
In, in, in the same way. Yes, it's that extra layer of defense and we highly recommend you do that if, if you want to, or you can. But I think in reality it's not super realistic to get people to, you know, every single time they get in the car, they take out their wallet. Other person, they put it on the backseat.
On the baby seat or somewhere in the back, or your phone or whatever, or the other. The thing is they put the wallet on the back, but then, you know, they're inside the supermarket, they're about to pay and they're like, my wallet?
I don't have my wallet. Uh, I get that pe
these days,
Well, right. I mean, people's attention spans now are like. Fricking fish. Like there is, there's none ever since, like TikTok and everything, people just wanna that next hit, next hit, next hit. It's like slow down people slow down.
I couldn't agree more and we're cleverly is in the process of making videos. For like, , state task forces that are here to combat this issue. And a lot of the information I'd be sharing in those videos are kind of the things I'm talking about here and want people to know, you know, around the 65,000 rescues around the, our brains can only hold seven or eight bits of information and how this happens.
And, you know, it doesn't matter how much you love your kid, it really doesn't in relation to this. , It's, it's simply put can happen to anyone and. We wanna just keep pushing how relatable this is to everyone and, and we encourage people to do different things. And like my email's down there in the bottom, Michael dot i@cleverly.com, if you have any ideas, suggestions, things you can do, I very much encourage you to reach out. , In your communities you don't even. Not even for money. I can send you brochures, infographics, things like this to hang up, , that can very much educate parents around this. , We have like a video, , that, that promotional video more about this issue than the device itself was actually created before the device was.
That's how old the video is. But I think it still does a really good job. It has like proper actors and stuff of reenacting this situation that we're talking about of forgetting your child in a car. We've been selling to like non-for-profits who hand these out to, to new parents.
, We've been selling to hospitals who hand them out in postpartum gift packages as you exit the hospital. , And other kind of organizations like this, community groups, but pharmacies, you know, , if you know anyone in your community or anything like this that, that wants to sell this or distribute this or hand this out, we also encourage you to reach out just.
Just shoot me an email and, , yeah, I'd love to have a chat about this or, or different things we, we can be doing, , with summer here. Now, you know, now it's July 1st for me today. , We're about to enter the, the most dangerous month of the year and, , I, I strongly encourage everyone to have as many conversations as possible.
I know it's hot in some parts of America all the way through to September and beyond, so, , over the next few months. This is the most dangerous time of the year, and, , I think everyone should just take it a little more seriously. Even just listening to this podcast and talking about this, like I said, helps because it, it reinforces it into your brain and you're thinking about it, and, and that helps
Well, yeah, you gotta spread awareness. It's the only way,
as we can.
right? And I mean, obviously it sounds like it, but in case someone's like, oh, does he ship worldwide? I'm guessing you ship. Worldwide.
Yeah, we have our fulfillment centers inside America, and most of the world is shipped from America. , Most of what we do is inside the states. , But yes, we, we definitely do ship worldwide as well, but it's more focused on America.
Okay. May I ask, how much is it going for if people are interested?
Yeah, of course. recently
So recently.
launched on Amazon as well, which I'm excited to say sorry for not answering your question directly first.
You're fine.
one unit for. 35 99 plus shipping, , and two units for 59 9. So the idea is to encourage you to get two units. You know, we want one in each car. , On Amazon.
It's actually slightly less after the shipping., But the, there is no discount for two units there. But on our website, clever.com, you can get two units for 59 99. That includes, , yeah, two units and the two door sensors, instructions, all that kind of stuff in there. , And yeah, it gives you everything you pretty much need.
Oh, one more thing I did wanna speak about. In some of the newer and newer cars, a very, very select fuel. They don't actually have a socket outlet in them anymore at all. , If that is your car, we sell or you can get from a local department store or Amazon or anything like that. An adapter, it's called a USB two Socket Outlet Adapter.
We sell it on our website, , for 7 99. You can get it from any of the department stores from the range of seven to $12 is what I've seen it for online. And people have told me you can buy it for online. And then essentially you just plug in that adapter and then it's working. believe, like, I don't know the statistics.
I believe it's maybe 1% of users, maybe 1%. We don't sell a lot of them at all. , We actually use them more to our resellers, , who use it for demonstrational purposes so that they can plug it into a portable charger and, and show how the device works. , But yeah, we, we do have it as well for the select few that need it.
And that way we are, it does work in every single car.
That's good to know, just in case. Yeah, apparently they're doing all kinds of stuff with cars nowadays. I'm outta the loop.
Yeah, it changes so quick.
It really does. Was there anything else that you wanted to add? I'm gonna make sure that, you know, I put the website and your email, everything in the show notes.
Uh, no,
I pretty much covered it. I wanted to thank everyone again for listening today in, in the podcast. , You know, taking time out of your day to, to listen to an issue like this, I think shows already that you are in that top high banner of really caring and loving parents and, . It doesn't mean you're not susceptible to this because everyone is susceptible to this, but it, I think it very much shows how you're willing to, to put in that effort to be a really good parent.
So thank you for being here today and thank you for creating a space, Tiffanie, that we can talk and chat about this and, and share this to your audience. And, , I really appreciate being here. And you know, as I said, I'm from Australia, so I don't get too many opportunities to speak to parents directly.
But, it's good. That's why I'm doing a few of these podcasts and, and, and I'm enjoying having these chats and I'm really excited about the impacts we can have over the next year and, and how much we can lower the statistics around babies dying in cars over the next year.
I'm excited just to be part of it. We need to save lives, so absolutely. Okay. Awesome. Then I wanna thank you so much and if anyone listening, if you know somebody who needs to hear this, please share it with them. Wisdom, that's what we need. Or knowledge is power. There we go. Knowledge is power. So, okay, Michael, thank you so much again.
Thank you.