A small terrier died in a hot car while its owner’s girlfriend waited in a long line to audition for “American Idol” at Invesco Field at Mile High Stadium.

Quincy Vanderbilt, 24, was served Tuesday with a misdemeanor summons for animal cruelty, said Lynn Kimbrough, spokeswoman for the Denver district attorney’s office.

Vanderbilt drove his girlfriend from North Dakota to Denver so she could audition for “American Idol,” Kimbrough said. He left the dog in the car with the windows rolled up early in the morning, Kimbrough said. The recorded high in Denver was 91 degrees Tuesday.

Vanderbilt was supposed to check on the dog periodically. By the time he did at 2 p.m., the dog was dead, Kimbrough said.

Denver police spokesman Sonny Jackson said temperatures soar in a car with its windows rolled up in the summer. “It’s extremely dangerous.”

Denver Animal Care and Control officials said that it takes only minutes for a pet left in a vehicle on a warm day to succumb to heatstroke and suffocation. On a 78-degree day, for example, temperatures in a car parked in the shade can exceed 90 degrees — and hit a scorching 160 degrees if parked in the sun.

“We’ve had a fairly mild summer so far,” Kimbrough said. “But temperatures are heating up. Clearly, it’s a danger to people as well, especially young children.”