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Tot found wandering along Main Street allegedly without supervision

By Billie Owens

A resident of Hutchins Street reports finding a 3-year-old child wandering on Main Street in the city and could find no parent or guardian. So the person brought the child home and called police, who are on scene.

UPDATE 6:06 p.m.: Police are continuing to try and locate a family member of the child, but at this point they have no idea who that is. The on-call DSS case worker is being contacted "because we might need some assistance with child care," says an officer.

UPDATE 6:20 p.m.: It's been determined that the child lives on South Swan Street.

Jason Post

From what I have seen, it only takes about a minute for a child to get outside line of sight. So unless a parent or other caretaker literally maintains line of sight for every minute of every day, there's a chance something like this happens.
It's not a good thing, but it is the type of thing that can and does happen, shockingly often.

Nov 1, 2013, 6:47pm Permalink
Howard B. Owens

What Billie heard on the scanner was the child was found on Main and lives on South Swan.

That doesn't necessarily mean the child wandered from South Swan to Main. We don't know how or from where the child made it to Main.

In cases like this, I've seen parents charged with child endangerment. Whether an arrest was made in this case, we don't know and won't know until and unless the police put out a press release on any possible arrest.

Nov 1, 2013, 8:32pm Permalink
Kyle Couchman

Some negative posters can't even concieve of anything but their own versions of the truth Doug.....

It has to be the parent's fault, has to be that the child wandered there on his or her own. Totally impossible that a grandparent who might not be as used to an overactive tot's shenanigans could have taken the child to a store to get something.

I was waiting for the dss/babymill mother comments to begin rolling along.
isnt that the normal progression for these type of comments?

Nov 2, 2013, 8:13am Permalink
Raymond Richardson

When my wife and I were living on Long Island, there was a tragic incident involving a 3 y/o in Mastic.

The mother, was asleep on the couch, and her 3 y/o son, who has a habit of getting out of the house and wandering off, got out of the house, wandered to the neighbors, and was found floating face down in the pool several hours after the mother woke up and discovered the child was missing.

Judge Judy sums it up best that there are some people who have no business having kids.

Nov 2, 2013, 9:22am Permalink
Jerry Buckman

I understand how this can happen because it happened to me when my twins were age 3. My wife and I were distracted with something and noticed they were gone. It was at most 15 minutes since we last saw them. We ran outside, grabbed neighbors, everyone calling their names while spreading out. This lasted about 30 minutes. We were just about to call the police when a friend drove up with my twins in the backseat. They walked out of the house and made a beeline to the water (1 mile away) where we often went to feed the ducks. My friend just happened to see them at the water's edge feeding the ducks!

We were so relieved, horrified, and humiliated all at once. We were not bad or neglectful parents. It still happened.

Nov 2, 2013, 10:31am Permalink
Howard B. Owens

Happened to me when I was about 3.

My brothers took me to a friend's house to play. We we're playing in the front yard. Next thing I know I was all alone somehow. I wondered off.

I remember walking and walking and walking ... looking for home ... I come to a dead end street and start bawling. A woman comes to help me. I run from her (amazing how clearly I remember it all). She catches me. Gets me to calm down. I tell her I'm lost. She gives me a little plastic horse to play with. The police come. I remember sitting in the front seat and the officer asking me questions (though I don't remember the questions). I remember being in the police station wondering if I'll ever see my mother again. What's to become of me? My mother comes in and picks me up and I'm afraid I'll be in trouble. I wasn't.

She had called the police just about the time I arrived at the station. I know she was very happy that I was found.

Nov 2, 2013, 10:40am Permalink
Frank Bartholomew

A former co-worker of mine had a crazy exp. with his toddler, it seems the little one woke up in the middle of the night and wandered outside to sleep in the dog house. Needless to say, everyone was embarrassed after the child was discovered sleeping in the dog house.The kid really loved that dog!!

Nov 2, 2013, 2:00pm Permalink
Sarah Christopher

If the child had enough time to walk all the way from S. Swan to Main and no one noticed...I can't defend that parent. But, I know all too well how slippery 3 year olds can be. My daughter was pretty slick when she was 3...One time we were watering flowers, I walked around the side of the house to hang up the hose and she was gone...within seconds the lifeguard was on the phone letting me know she was down at the beach swimming....this all happened in a matter of seconds. This was terrifying considering we lived by a pond. We put hooks on the doors, and all our friends knew to keep an eye out for her. Someone once told us that they watched her...she would wait for the second that we would turn our backs and she would just run like the wind. Thankfully she grew out of this...but I seriously considered getting her a GPS tracker that attached to her shoe.

Nov 2, 2013, 6:36pm Permalink
Steve Hackett

I think the bottom line here people is this...life is very precious ...a 3 year old should have never been put in a situation like that... things could have turned out a lot worse....24-7....365 days a year...its a job being a parent...hopefully it won't happen again...

Nov 2, 2013, 7:27pm Permalink

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