Toddler Found Wandering Alone In Pleasanton Parking Lot
PLEASANTON (CBS SF) - A young child was reunited with his mother after he was found wandering alone in the parking lot of a Walmart in Pleasanton early Thursday morning. Police said the boy had opened the door of his locked apartment overnight and had walked out.
A manager at the Walmart, located at 4501 Rosewood Drive, had stepped outside to take a break at about 3 a.m. and found the boy in the parking lot, barefoot and wearing only a white T-shirt and a diaper, police Sgt. Maria Munayer said.
Officers searched the surrounding area but could not locate the child's parents or guardian. The boy was then taken to the Child Protective Services intake center, Munayer said.
Meanwhile, the boy's mother had called 911 to report her son missing from their apartment in the Archstone Hacienda complex across Owens Dr., a six-lane street with a center median. The boy had managed to open the deadbolt lock on the family's front door overnight and had wandered out, according to Munayer.
Munayer said the front door was built to Americans with Disabilities Act standards to accommodate people in a wheelchair. Pulling on the door handle automatically unlocks the deadbolt lock.
"It would have been pretty easy for the child to have gone out the front door because the apartment is ADA compliant, meaning that the door handle is positioned very low on the door," she said.
The child was uninjured and is in "very good spirits," Munayer said.
The unidentified mother and son were reunited at the police station around 6:30 a.m.
(Copyright 2011 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services may have contributed to this report.)
