Woman charged after child found wandering
ORANGE CITY, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35) - An Orange City mom has been charged with child neglect after deputies say her 2-year-old son was found wandering outside alone.
A pool service provider noticed the boy by himself in a yard late Wednesday morning.
“I’m like, that child’s way too young to be by himself,” Tyler Simpson said.
He says there were no adults in sight and the temperature was in the 90s.
“Poor thing was sweating and everything,” Simpson explained. “I gave him a bottle of water from my truck to cool him down and everything and he drank half of it.”
Simpson says he called his boss and his boss called 911. Volusia County deputies say when they got to the Orange City neighborhood, they knocked on 24 doors before zeroing in on the right home.
“I had been sleeping and they woke me up from sleep and my world could have been gone,” Cole said.
She says she works overnight and that she and the boy both fell asleep. She says at some point, he woke up, crawled out of his playpen and made his way outside. She says it was a freak accident.
“He went through three doors that he’s never opened before,” she said.
Cole was arrested. Deputies say the child was unsupervised for at least an hour and 15 minutes.
“I thank god that he wasn’t hurt,” Cole said.
Now, the family says they’re making sure it never happens again by installing new locks on the doors.