The two Houston cases this week were eerily similar.

On Thursday, a local mother left her 3-year-old boy in her truck in the parking lot of Cypress Medical Center.

She didn’t discover her child until after she’d worked her entire eight-hour shift.

The child, who police say tried to get out of the vehicle, died.

In Webster on Wednesday, a grandmother left her 3-year-old grandson inside her car at her workplace parking lot for 10 hours.

She didn’t realize what she had done until she got out of work.

That child also died.

Detectives say they’ve seen cases like these before.

They say that some parents and caregivers may forget children inside their vehicles especially if they are stressed, overworked or have had a change in their daily routine.

So, how hot can a locked up vehicle get?

Studies show that on a day a 93 degree day it can get up to 140 degrees inside a locked up vehicle in just 40 minutes.

On a 100 degree day, it can get up to 153 inside a closed vehicle in just 30 minutes. 

When we met 3-year-old Sophia, she was being buckled into her car seat in a south Harris County parking lot.

"It's hot," she told her mom.

With the air conditioning on moments later, Sophia’s mom reacted to this week’s horrible news.

“It’s kind of hard to understand how someone could forget their child in a car," Kim Hillis said. "I just don’t think I could ever forget my child.”

“I don’t see at all how that’s even possible," agreed Courtney Noe, another Houston mom. "Those people need to be in trouble and be taken care of cause that’s not right...”

Others understand how it could happen.

“If it’s not part of your normal routine, if you don’t normally take your child to day care, then it can be easy to go about your normal routine almost on autopilot and skip that step,” explained Jennifer Cole, program director with Depelchin Children's Center.

Texas is one of 14 states where leaving your child unattended in a car is considered a crime.

So far, no charges have been filed in either case this week.