PARMA, Ohio -- It was about 78 degrees on Saturday afternoon when Richard Hill was leaving the Walmart in Parma. When he saw two dogs locked in a car, he did what he thought was right -- and what might be protected by Ohio law. 
 
 Hill, a home improvement contractor, grabbed a hammer from his work van and broke a car window in an attempt to save the dogs inside. Moments later, police arrived in response to a 911 call about the dogs in the car. 
 
 Police cited Hill for criminal damages. 
 
 Surveillance video showed dogs were left in the car for about six minutes. Security camera footage shows the dog owner pull into the Ridgewood Drive parking lot at 4:05 p.m. and enter the Walmart one minute later. 
 
 Bystanders called 911 at 4:08 p.m. to report the dogs in a hot car and were told that officers are on the way. Hill smashed the car window at 4:12 p.m. as Parma police were pulling up. 
 
 Police say the dogs' owner, Carly Hartman, returned to her car after about 14 minutes. She was not cited. 
 
 "The big dog was moving around in the backseat, but the small puppy was not even moving, sitting up or anything," Hill said. "I didn't know if he was passed out, just exhausted or what." 
 
 Senate Bill 215, also known as Ohio's "Hot Car" legislation, protects Good Samaritans who find a child or pet in a hot vehicle. The law allows people to intervene by forcibly entering the vehicle prior to emergency personnel responding without the fear of litigation. 
 
 Sergeant Dan Ciryak said he wasn't sure this incident was "a matter of life and death," especially since the dog owner's sunroof was open and the rear windows were cracked open. Hill disagrees, saying the sunroof was only cracked open and all the windows were closed. 
 
 Ciryak added that it only took four minutes for police to arrive after they received a call. 
 
 "We believe his heart may have been in the right place, but he should have waited a little more," Ciryak said. "He knew the police were coming. I don't know what his sense of urgency was." 
 
 However, Ohio's "Hot Car" law says nothing about a Samaritan waiting until police arrive. It only specifies that the person must call 911, check to see if the door is unlocked and if they feel it is an emergency. 
 
 Hill says he thinks he did all the necessary actions before breaking the window. 
 
 "I didn't know how long it was going to be for [police] to get here, and I truly felt that the puppy needed out," Hill said. "I've had to wait for police before and know that it can take 15, 20 minutes, or more than half an hour." 
 
 He plans to fight the charges. His court date is set for Aug. 15. 
 
 To comment on this story, visit Tuesday's crime and courts comments page. ||||| An Ohio man received a citation for criminal damaging after he smashed a car window to rescue two dogs. 
 
 Richard Hill thought he was being a good Samaritan on July 28, when he broke car window to rescue two dogs, which he claimed appeared to be in hot car without the owner over the weekend. Instead, he was handed a citation for criminal damage, he told ABC News in a phone interview. 
 
 Hill saw a small dog that appeared to be two or three months old and a larger dog that was about 2 years old inside the locked car. A passerby who also saw what was going on went into the Walmart nearby to find the owner of the car, and another man called Parma police to inform them of the situation, Hill reported. 
 
 After the others went to get help, Hill took a hammer from his truck and smashed the window to let the two dogs out, he said. 
 
 Police soon arrived on scene as a witness helped give the dogs some water, Hill said. 
 
 "I explained the whole thing to him [the officer] as far as what was going on, and I felt that the dog needed to be out right then and there. [The office] told me that I did not have that rights and I had to wait on him," he recalled. "I thought that I covered all of my basis based on the law stating that as long as I call 911; as long as I attempt to locate the owner of the vehicle and make sure that that is the only way of getting into the vehicle." 
 
 Richard Hill 
 
 The most upsetting part to Hill is that the owner of the vehicle did not received a ticket, he claimed. 
 
 "I’ve got the ticket right then and there," he said, adding the citation was handed to him before he left the scene. 
 
 Though he’s worried about cost to hire attorney and the fine that he might have to pay, Hill said he would still help the dogs having known what he would face. 
 
 "I would have done everything the same," he said. "The only difference thing I know I would end up doing is, I would actually take picture or video to fully cover all my basis, if something like this was to arrive I have all the evidence myself because now they are stating that the sun roof was wide open." 
 
 "I just wanted to help that dogs. That’s it," Hill said. 
 
 The Parma Police Department told ABC News that they have evidence that shows that justification of the citation. 
 
 "He broke the window knowing the police were coming and it’s only been six minutes," Parma police Sergeant Daniel Ciryak told ABC news over phone interview. "He was not physically arrested. He’s only cited and given a court case." 
 
 "He can explain to the judge as why he took the action he did," Ciryak said. ||||| An Ohio man thought he was doing the right thing earlier this week when he broke into a woman’s car on a warm day to rescue her two dogs — but the police didn’t see it the same way. 
 
 After breaking into a woman’s car with a hammer in a Walmart parking lot on Saturday, Richard Hill was cited for criminal damaging, according to multiple reports. 
 
 In a Facebook post shared on Saturday, Hill wrote that the incident occurred after he “noticed 2 dogs,” one of which appeared to be “maybe 2-3 months old,” that were “locked in a car with it being 79° at that time.” 
 
 While he went on to claim that the older dog was “jumping around” and setting off a car alarm, the younger dog was “just laying there not moving.” 
 
 “One of the bystanders called [the Parma, Ohio] police,” he continued, adding that while the bystander said that the authorities were “in [sic] route,” he decided to break into the car anyway because “I felt they needed out right then and there.” 
 
 He also claimed that the dogs had been inside the car for “at least” 30 minutes. 
 
 Stock photo of a dog in a car Getty Images 
 
 However, according to surveillance video, the dogs were only left alone in the car for four minutes before bystanders called the police at 4:08 p.m., reported Cleveland.com. Two minutes later, Hill was seen smashing the windows, while the authorities arrived at 4:12 p.m. 
 
 Additionally, authorities told the outlet that the owner of the pets — who was not cited — returned to the car after spending about 14 minutes inside the store. 
 
 Sergeant Dan Ciryak went on to tell that outlet that while “we believe his heart may have been in the right place, he should have waited a little more.” 
 
 “He knew the police were coming. I don’t know what his sense of urgency was,” he added. 
 
 The Parma Police did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment. 
 
 RELATED: What You Need to Know About the New California Law that Makes it Legal to Smash a Car’s Window to Save an Animal Trapped Inside 
 
 Ohio passed legislation in 2016 protecting Good Samaritans rescuing pets or minors from hot cars. 
 
 The legislation, Senate Bill 215, grants legal protection to individuals, provided they contacted the police first and are able to prove that the pet or child was actually in danger and could not wait for the authorities to arrive. 
 
 “You absolutely do have to call the police department in order to be able to move forward,” Elysse Rathbone, Humane Agent for the Capital Area Humane Society, told NBC4I shortly after the bill was passed. “You have to be able to prove that this is an emergency or life threatening incident.” 
 
 RELATED VIDEO: Don’t Ever Leave Your Dog in the Car on a Hot Day 
 
 Carly Hartman, the owner of the dogs, told FOX 8 that she loves her dogs and “would never put them in danger,” adding that she can no longer drive her car because of the broken window. 
 
 Despite the citation, Hill told the outlet that he had no regrets about his actions. 
 
 “I even told the officer I would do it again in a heartbeat,” he added. 
 
 Hill has a court date schedule for Aug. 15, where he plans on fighting the citation, according to the Associated Press.
– An Ohio man who smashed a window to save two dogs left in a hot car received a citation for criminal damage from police officers who turned up minutes later. Richard Hill says he saw the dogs in a car in the parking lot of the Parma, Ohio, Walmart on Saturday, People reports. He says that after noticing the younger of the two dogs, a puppy, wasn't moving, he smashed the window with a hammer he retrieved from his truck, even though another witness alerted by the older dog jumping around had already called police. "I felt they needed out right then and there," Hill says. In a Facebook post, he says it was around 79 degrees at the time and he believed the dogs had been in the car for around 30 minutes. Police, however, say the dogs had only been left in the car for around six minutes when Hill broke the window. "We believe his heart may have been in the right place, but he should have waited a little more," Sgt. Dan Ciryak tells Cleveland.com. "He knew the police were coming. I don't know what his sense of urgency was." The vehicle's owner emerged from the store after around 14 minutes and did not receive a citation. Hill, who says he thought he was protected under the state's "Hot Car" law, plans to fight his citation in court. He says he would do the same thing again in a similar situation, though he would take video to protect himself and prove that the vehicle's sunroof wasn't open, as police are claiming. "I just wanted to help [the] dogs. That’s all," he tells ABC.