Imagine leaving your beloved toddler with people, who are getting paid money to watch him, only to receive a phone call from police saying that your child is lucky to be alive.
How would you respond?
The words “fear” and “rage” come to my mind.
Unfortunately, for parents of two toddler boys left at an Anaheim, California YMCA day care center the aforementioned scenario was not hypothetical.
According to reports, numerous calls came into the Anaheim police department last week when residents noticed two young boys walking near railroad tracks.
The two-year-old boys reportedly escaped from the YMCA’s outdoor playground through a hole someone cut in a wire fence. Police say the toddlers, then wandered through the neighborhood and ended up near the active railroad tracks.
A concerned homeowner, who lived near the tracks reportedly ran outside and steered the tots to safety. Police say the resident kept the boys at her house after calling 911.
When law enforcement officers arrived at the woman’s house, workers at the YMCA still had not realized the toddlers were missing. It wasn’t until after Y employees conducted a routine head count that they discovered the boys were gone. Daycare workers then notified police who returned the toddlers to the YMCA.
Police say the boys probably found their way onto the tracks through a hole in the YMCA’s fence. A spokesperson from the daycare told local reporters that the fence has been fixed.
That news is probably of little comfort to the parents of the two toddlers.
Assuming someone not associated with the YMCA cut the hole in the fence; isn’t that something a maintenance man or, oh, say the person on yard duty would notice while monitoring kids in an enclosed area? After all, unless they were greased up and could slip out of a fence in record time, you’d think that someone would have noticed two toddlers making a mad dash for the sidewalk.
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