NHTSA Complaint #11535153 — 2019 SUBARU ASCENT

Arrived at my car after traveling for the weekend, and arrived to my car to find out the battery was dead. Nothing on, lights were in Auto like normal. The last thing I did after getting out of my SUV was grabbed my suitcase from the trunk. I think it must not of latched correctly and it drained the battery. There is supposed to be a light delay to preserve the battery but it did not work in this case. I still can't open the trunk. This happened once before while camping with our dogs we left the tailgate up to unpack and pack the SUV. We loaded the dogs up to leave the campsite. When we went to start the SUV the battery was dead. Seems leaving the tailgate open drains the battery. The problem is even after we got our car jumped and the car was operating okay, we could not open the tailgate. It just makes a beeping sound like it wants to release but will not open. The manual handle should allow anyone to open the gate even if there is a electrical disturbance. This is a safety issue related to not being able to get our dogs out of the cargo compartment. Our dogs are over 100 lbs and their travel crates are large and need to be opened from the rear of the vehicle.