Boy, 5, found wandering Wellsville streets
By JO ANN BOBBY-GILBERT / jgilbert@reviewonline.com POSTED: January 8, 2010
WELLSVILLE Observant officers may have saved the life of a small boy found wandering outside during the early morning hours Wednesday in below-freezing temperatures.
While patrolling on 9th Street at 3:31 a.m., Patrolmen Justin Wright and Glenn LaClair saw something in the middle of Washington Street about half a block away.
"I thought it was a bag blowing," LaClair said Thursday.
Luckily for one 5-year-old boy, the officers went back to check and found him walking with a blanket over his head and shoulders, wearing no coat but just pants, shoes and a short-sleeved shirt.
The boy was crying and shivering, according to the officers, who said he told them he was trying to find his daddy but otherwise was unable to tell them his last name, his address or his parents' names.
He pointed in varying directions when asked where he lived, they reported.
The officers placed the boy into the cruiser, where LaClair held him in a body hug to warm him, while Wright drove down the street, trying to retrace his footsteps and the marks made by the blanket he was dragging through the snow.
Eventually, the tracks ended at a Washington Street home, the address of a convicted Tier III sex offender who must register his whereabouts, according to Juvenile Officer Marsha Eisenhart.
Once there, the boy handed LaClair a set of car keys he had held in his hand, and LaClair said, "We could see tracks in the snow where he had tried to get into the car."
When officers knocked on the door of the house, it opened and they reported yelling several times, identifying themselves as police officers before a man appeared. The man, the boy's grandfather, is the convicted sex offender listed on county records.
He said the boy's mother was asleep upstairs, and, after she was awakened, the officers carried the boy inside, where they told her what had transpired.
"(She) showed no emotion to the situation," they reported, saying they asked her if she understood the seriousness of the situation and that her son could have frozen to death in the 23-degree temperatures.
"(She) still acted as if it were no big deal," officers reported, adding that the boy was screaming at this point, saying he wanted his daddy, who reportedly lives in Irondale.
Children Services was notified, and Eisenhart said a charge of endangering children is pending against the mother.
Asked about the child living in a household with a registered sex offender, Eisenhart said the law does not prohibit it. According to police records, the man was convicted of sexual battery involving a "youth female."
Chief Joe Scarabino was noticeably upset Thursday with the mother's alleged lack of emotion in regard to her son, and the boy's reluctance to leave with her.
"He wanted to stay with the police officers instead of going with his mother. What's that say?" Scarabino asked rhetorically.
Scarabino commended his officers, saying they did a good job of tracking down the child's residence and handling the situation.
While patrolling on 9th Street at 3:31 a.m., Patrolmen Justin Wright and Glenn LaClair saw something in the middle of Washington Street about half a block away.
"I thought it was a bag blowing," LaClair said Thursday.
Luckily for one 5-year-old boy, the officers went back to check and found him walking with a blanket over his head and shoulders, wearing no coat but just pants, shoes and a short-sleeved shirt.
The boy was crying and shivering, according to the officers, who said he told them he was trying to find his daddy but otherwise was unable to tell them his last name, his address or his parents' names.
He pointed in varying directions when asked where he lived, they reported.
The officers placed the boy into the cruiser, where LaClair held him in a body hug to warm him, while Wright drove down the street, trying to retrace his footsteps and the marks made by the blanket he was dragging through the snow.
Eventually, the tracks ended at a Washington Street home, the address of a convicted Tier III sex offender who must register his whereabouts, according to Juvenile Officer Marsha Eisenhart.
Once there, the boy handed LaClair a set of car keys he had held in his hand, and LaClair said, "We could see tracks in the snow where he had tried to get into the car."
When officers knocked on the door of the house, it opened and they reported yelling several times, identifying themselves as police officers before a man appeared. The man, the boy's grandfather, is the convicted sex offender listed on county records.
He said the boy's mother was asleep upstairs, and, after she was awakened, the officers carried the boy inside, where they told her what had transpired.
"(She) showed no emotion to the situation," they reported, saying they asked her if she understood the seriousness of the situation and that her son could have frozen to death in the 23-degree temperatures.
"(She) still acted as if it were no big deal," officers reported, adding that the boy was screaming at this point, saying he wanted his daddy, who reportedly lives in Irondale.
Children Services was notified, and Eisenhart said a charge of endangering children is pending against the mother.
Asked about the child living in a household with a registered sex offender, Eisenhart said the law does not prohibit it. According to police records, the man was convicted of sexual battery involving a "youth female."
Chief Joe Scarabino was noticeably upset Thursday with the mother's alleged lack of emotion in regard to her son, and the boy's reluctance to leave with her.
"He wanted to stay with the police officers instead of going with his mother. What's that say?" Scarabino asked rhetorically.
Scarabino commended his officers, saying they did a good job of tracking down the child's residence and handling the situation.
1 comment:
I can only imagine how hard it was for the policemen involved in this case to leave that child there. After all they did to find his home, only to find out that his mother didn't care and his grandfather was a sex offender! Policemen are the good guys and have to follow the law. Even if the law sucks. It now falls on Children's Services.
Why was that little boy out in the freezing cold looking for his daddy? It is pretty bad that he wanted to stay with total strangers rather than his own mother. I hope Childrens Services acts on this right away! And I hope the little boy's dad steps up and gets his son! And to the policemen-My heart goes out to you that you had to make such a gut wrenching decision to have to leave that little boy there!
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