INDEPENDENCE, Mo. — A child was found wandering alone on a street near I-70 and South Noland Rd. late Friday morning and authorities found his parents about an hour and a half later.
He was reportedly in the care of a sitter and somehow got out of the residence. The little boy was spotted in the roadway on Osage Street at about 10:45 a.m. Friday.
A woman FOX 4 spoke to, who saw the little boy, said he was being checked out in an ambulance while police canvassed the area. They found family members at about 12:20 p.m.
The child’s age was still uncertain. Independence Police spokesman Tom Gentry said the boy was one or two years old; the woman who spoke to FOX 4 also thought he was about two years old.
“Oh, my God I couldn’t believe it when we saw him. He was there in the middle of the street with that deer-in-the-headlights kind of look. I just believe he was scared and didn’t expect a car to come facing him,” said Andrea Campbell about the toddler she and her boyfriend saw standing in the middle of South Osage Street in Independence.
Campbell says they were driving home, turning the corner when they came upon the little guy wearing only pajamas and socks.
“His hands were cold and he appeared to be hungry. We put him in our car, turned the heater on to keep him warm and I fed him some toast until police, firefighters and an ambulance all showed up,” said Campbell, who lives across from the boy’s aunt’s home.
Police say the child and his aunt were initially asleep, but when the boy woke up first, investigators say he walked out of the front door of the home by himself and took off up the street.
Only FOX 4 was there when police and social workers showed up at the house to question the babysitter. After spending some time with the woman, investigators left. No charges were filed.
FOX 4’S Robert Townsend knocked on the family’s front door, but no one came to the door.
About two hours after police and social workers left another woman pulled up to the house in a silver car. She raced inside the house and never talked to FOX 4.
When asked if she and her boyfriend were kind of like his good Samaritans or his angels, Campell replied laughingly, “Yeah, I guess so, I’m just so grateful that he’s okay.”