A 35-year-old Perth father has been charged with leaving his three-year-old son in a locked car at a Booragoon shopping centre on Tuesday, a 40-degree day.

WA Police spokeswoman Barbara Crane said security officers, who passers-by notified about 4.10pm, could not find the car's owner so smashed a side window to remove the child.

"Security Officers comforted the child and took him inside the shopping centre to wait for St John Ambulance officers and police," she said.

"The three-year-old boy was checked and cleared by ambulance officers."