Northern California Babies
futrkingsley
member
Options
Toddler wanders into Walmart parking lot at 2 am
futrkingsley
member
https://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/baycitynews/archive/2011/03/31/child31.DTL&tsp=1
So police find a toddler wandering a Walmart parking lot, clothed only in a diaper and t-shirt, at 3 am. Can't find parents. I read this at 5 am and assumed the worst.
But instead, I heard on the radio this AM, that his mother woke to find him missing at 6 am and called 911. They live across the street and he apparently got up in the middle of the night and went for a stroll. He's okay and back home with his parents. Who I bet are spending the day installing some crazy locks on doors at their house.
It is one of my parenting nightmares, and I'm so thankful that my kid stays in bed when he wakes up.
What do my nesties think?
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Toddler wanders into Walmart parking lot at 2 am
Thanks for the update, I read the article this morning and was absolutely shocked.
I have to imagine there is more to the story. This can't be the first time the kid was able to unlock the doors (if the doors were even locked), makes me wonder why precautions weren't taken before (i.e. a chain on the door, etc.).
My kids know how to unlock our doors, so every door that leads to the front yard has a chain on it that is out of their reach. Common sense I would think.
I have run into many toddlers who have somehow managed to escape without anyone knowing. Once was on very, very busy Mission St. in Daly City. I called 911, but I think the parents found him beofre the police came.
I also remember one time when my mom & I came home and saw the doctor-next-door's toddler son in the middle of the cul-de-sac dragging a ski pole in circles. As we got closer we noticed we had left our garage door open, and hey, that's our ski pole! So, this little boy had gotten out of his house,made his way to our house, and found something to play with in the middle of the street - all without anyone noticing.
I think the transition between being not-so-mobile to being really talented at opening doors and getting out takes some parents by surprise. I guess it's just one of those things you need to prepare for way before you think you'll need to.
I would too.
Hmm... It's so hard to speculate and judge without knowing the details. Maybe this kid is obsessed with opening the front door and tries it every night, so the parents put a lock (chain) out of kiddo's reach.
Maybe on that one night, the routine/schedule changed and for that ONE time, they forgot to lock the top lock. Everyone makes mistakes... Who knows?
I can see it happening. Andrew first learned how to open our front door with standard child lock on it at 13 months old
. Thank god my brother was sitting right there and saw him do it. We promptly went out and added additional locks way up high and my parents did the same at their houses. Andrew also was/is one to get up and wander around. I found him one morning at 4am in the kitchen, he had gotten the cheese out of the fridge, pulled up a stool to the counter and was sitting on the stool with a Tillamook block of cheese sitting on the counter and he was bent over eating it like a little rat. I think he was about 2 when that happened.
I certainly wasn't prepared for him to figure out how to open locked doors so early on and felt totally confident with the safety measures we had so I can only be thankful that he didn't do it in the middle of the night or super early in the morning.
I would totally judge too. It should only take one time for any parent to expand their safety measures and if that fails to then you keep going. I know there are some kids who really are unstoppable but for those kids I love the idea of the noise chimes like you have.
br
NorCalMOMS bio* NorCalBOTB* babywearingBIO
Harmony Doula
Kids are smart - and they figure things out. So the very first time your kid ends up in the first yard, it should be a learning moment as a parent. Then you do the responsible thing, and you child-proof your doors so that it doesn't happen again. You never know if your child will wander outside, eat a poisonous plant, wander down the street, get abducted, etc. And of course it can happen the first time too...I'm just a judge-y person and that's okay with me.
So here's what I want to know:
If it was such a big street and parking lot and 2 blocks. How MANY people saw this TODDLER and didn't do anything before someone finally did?!?!
probably b/c it was the middle of the night and few people if any saw him. i think the walmart in pleasanton is NOT a 24 hr one.
This.
When I taught in Indiana I had an autistic class (kids are notorious for being escape artists and runners) anyway I had a student that was non-verbal and used to get out of his mom's house all the time despite many efforts made by her. The only thing that made him stay or return once he did get out was this loud sound that only mom could turn off (he was sensitive to sound)... anyway I was out of town and one day he got off school grounds and around the corner across a very busy street. There was a Dairy Queen that he went to on the way around the corner and they didn't try to stop him at all. He went to a gas station where they gave him food to keep him there until they found him. I was very curious about the ppl at the Dairy Queen, how do you let a kid go unattended knowing there is a school less than 100 yards away!!! HELLO!!
My husband and I are were watching TV one night when I hear yelling (over the Soprano's too) because we had our door open/screen shut. I ran outside and found a toddler in the middle of the road crying and yelling for his Mom, in the dark, right around the bend of my street that tons of people sped on-I got him out of the road, had my husband call 911 and got him a sweater and sat him on my car while trying to get info from him.
The cops were able to find the home, and apparently his Mom had left for Walmart and his grandfather was watching him and the other kids in the home-He just wandered out the front door with nobody noticing to run after his Mom's car. I'm so glad I had my door open and heard him!
Kids are sneaky, and I would hope that if had done it before that they would have installed chain locks, but this may have been the first time because he was upset his Mom had left.