Police Locate Parents After Toddler Found Alone In Chesterton, Indiana, Playing In Apartment Complex Hallway
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Police in Chesterton, Indiana, have located the parents of a toddler who was found alone in the hallway of an apartment complex Monday morning, after he wandered off while his mother was sleeping.
Chesterton Police Chief Robert Byrd said, around 8:45 a.m., a maintenance worker found the boy playing on the second floor of the Deer Run Apartments.
The boy's mother, who told police she wasn't feeling well and was sleeping soundly, and didn't hear when officers twice knocked on her door as they were canvassing the building to try and find the boy's parents.
As Byrd was meeting with complex management to come up with a plan for entering any apartments where no one answered the door, the boy's father called police after seeing social media posts about his son.
The father, who was at work in nearby Hobart, recognized the picture of his son and told police how to reach his mother, according to Byrd.
"Thanks to the power of Facebook and getting it out fast," Byrd said. "Facebook paid a huge dividend for us today."
Officers then found the boy's mother around 1 p.m., and she told police she was asleep when her son wandered out of the apartment.
"He just opened the door and walked out," Byrd said.
Police said the incident remains under investigation, and both parents are cooperating.