I’m a property manager & yesterday evening a resident knocked on my door. There was a child (aged 1 and a half) sitting outside by himself. She told me that he’s been sitting there for about 5 mins with no parent in sight. We kept looking around but no one came out & I didn’t recognize the child. I took him into my apartment & called the police. They arrived about 15 mins later.
As the police arrive I see 2 girls running & shouting. They were related to the child. The father also came out & he looked so relieved when he saw his child was safe. They said that the mom was doing laundry & she might’ve left the door open & the child got out. They had just moved in 2 months ago which is why I didn’t recognize the kid. The police left after they asked me some questions.
I called the resident afterwards to make sure everything was okay. I explained to him that the only reason I called the police was because I didn’t recognize his child as he had just moved in. He sounded kinda pissed that I called the police. He said now social services will be involved. I told him that he has nothing to worry about if it was an accident. He wasn’t rude or anything but his tone definitely sounded angry.
Am I wrong for calling the cops??? I feel so guilty & now it’s a bigger problem than I intended. Looking back, maybe I should’ve sat with the child where I had initially found him and just waited for his parents to come out. I feel like I was too quick to call the police.
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I’m a property manager & yesterday evening a resident knocked on my door. There was a child (aged 1 and a half) sitting outside by himself. She told me that he’s been sitting there for about 5 mins with no parent in sight. We kept looking around but no one came out & I didn’t recognize the child. I took him into my apartment & called the police. They arrived about 15 mins later.
As the police arrive I see 2 girls running & shouting. They were related to the child. The father also came out & he looked so relieved when he saw his child was safe. They said that the mom was doing laundry & she might’ve left the door open & the child got out. They had just moved in 2 months ago which is why I didn’t recognize the kid. The police left after they asked me some questions.
I called the resident afterwards to make sure everything was okay. I explained to him that the only reason I called the police was because I didn’t recognize his child as he had just moved in. He sounded kinda pissed that I called the police. He said now social services will be involved. I told him that he has nothing to worry about if it was an accident. He wasn’t rude or anything but his tone definitely sounded angry.
Am I wrong for calling the cops??? I feel so guilty & now it’s a bigger problem than I intended. Looking back, maybe I should’ve sat with the child where I had initially found him and just waited for his parents to come out. I feel like I was too quick to call the police.
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OP has offered the following explanation for why they think they might be the asshole:
> 1. I may have called the cops too soon.
2. I feel most people would have waited a bit longer before calling.
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Contest mode is 1.5 hours long on this post.
NTA, you did exactly what you were supposed to. If you see an unattended kid and can’t find the parent the safest thing to do is call the cops.
NTA, negligence is the fault of the parents
NTA
NTA. When did people start thinking they should avoid calling the police for stuff like this?
I understand why you did what you did, but I don’t think I would have called the police *that quickly, but I’m a Mom who raised 3 kids and knows what it’s like when things get chaotic. Doors get left open, or toddlers learn how to open them when you weren’t looking. If they didn’t look harmed or visibly upset, my first step would have been to hang with the kid for a few and ensure they didn’t wander into the parking lot. You say there’s a laundry room, I would have likely gone there looking for a parent, the playground if there was one. If after 15-20 mins and there was *still no one looking for him & I saw no one, then I would have taken another step and made that phone call. Give them some grace.
NTA, maybe the child protective services should be involved if a 1.5 year old is just sitting there on a front step with no parents in sight! That seems crazy.
Okay, so the only thing that bothers me here is:
>I took him into my apartment & called the police.
Don’t ever take a strange child into your apartment, just for your sake. But calling the police was the right thing to do. NTA.
NTA
When would you call the cops, when the toddler starts scratching at your door. This is an abandoned child (left the door open may be the reason, but it is not an excuse) and you don’t just keep them and put up posters, you call the authorities. If the dad was mad, it was at himself. NTA
NTA. This is exactly what you are supposed to do. You can’t possibly know the best case scenario of how this would have turned out, so the safe option is to involve authorities. Glad the child is okay.
NTA, it’s on them for being neglectful.
A dog got lost in our neighborhood and they were calling animal control to find its owner within an hour. I don’t think this is alarming. Dad’s probably had to deal with cps before, otherwise why would his mind go there and get mad at you?
NTA you did everything right. I’m not sure what else you could have done. It sounds like social services need to be involved, even if it’s just for some standard checks.
NTA. This happened to me when I lived in an apartment. I could hear the elevator ding and it had been going off for like 15 min. (Very early morning) I go to walk my dog and there is a 2? Year old playing with the elevator. It was a new build complex so I knew no one so I called 911. Out the kid in my unit and stood in the hall and about 5 min later a frantic mother comes running out of her unit. Apparently the kid wondered off. The police came and talked to them. Better be safe than sorry.
NTA. Social services might get involved. That’s what happens when a young child wanders outside alone. I get it how the parents feel. I’ve been there. It’s impossible to watch your kid 24/7 and never once get distracted. But it just takes a second for bad things to happen. They should be grateful that you found the kid and not a sexual predator. I guarantee there is at least one in the neighborhood.
NTA – sounds like 4 people were home, not one watching the toddler.
NAH. Why call to bring it up again? Sometimes we do things to assuage our own guilt and what we do is take a thought thats troubling ourselves and give it to someone else, and then get shocked they are troubled by it.
NTA. The child was out of their apartment and had no idea. You looked around and couldn’t find them which means anything could have happened to that child. She’s lucky you found her and someone that wouldn’t have been so nice. You did what was best for the child, which is more than her parents and family did.
NTA
I’m mom to a kid who used to be a big eloper, and I would have called the police when you did.
NTA. I was gonna say you did it a little too quickly, but the kid was 1 and a half years old? Nah, you did the right thing, except bring the kid into your apartment, could have led to misunderstandings.
You did the right thing
You never know if a baby has some medical need. Acting quickly is important because what if there is a scheduled procedure or medication, and there is a delay finding the parent?
Omg no, you’re NTA! When you see a small child unattended, it’s natural to feel protective and to worry; and you did the right thing by calling the cops, because how were you supposed to know that the child’s mom was nearby doing laundry? The mom needs to keep a closer eye on her kid so that this doesn’t happen again!
YTA It sounds like you meant well and were genuinely trying to help, but why did you take the child into your apartment? Clearly the family was looking for him. You should have stayed outside where you found the kid. Also, idk if you’re in America, but if so, I would not call police so quickly in any non-emergency situation. Police escalate the situation, and if anyone involved is a person of color, you’re opening them up to additional risk of violence and unfair treatment. If you want to build a community in your new neighborhood, you have to work at it. Instead, you immediately went to calling police. You could have knocked on some doors, asking if people knew the child and tried to find the parents. Having little ones it’s tough, every parent makes mistakes. If you couldn’t find them after an hour, maybe call the authorities. But you immediately jumped to bringing in police and subjecting this family to law enforcement involvement with their lives. If you were my new neighbor, I would be wary of being around you in the future.
I would hope that everyone handled such a situation just the way you did. Also, I would hope if this had been my child, someone would do just what you did. I have four children, all grown up now with children of their own. I can remember times when I was distracted and a little one was out of my sight range. It’s very frightening. However, knowing that there are caring people around would make me feel better as a parent.
NTA but should’ve sat with the kid outside while you called. It sounds like social services are already involved for the father to make that comment.
NTA.
Most likely Dad was still in flight or fight mode from the panic of the toddler missing. All that adrenaline and panic, and he redirected that onto you by being grouchy. And in that panic mindset, he wouldn’t be able to have the insight to see things from your point of view.
Social services will not give one flying fuck over an incident this minor, assuming it have happened before. NTA
Nta.
You did the right thing.
And now they will be much more attentive.
I feel like how quickly you call police should correlate with age. That young, absolutely you did right. Child could wander into the parking lot, road, climb stairs and fall…so many ways it could end badly. You just don’t let a kid that age out of your sight. Especially if they’re adept at opening doors (if that happened). Dad’s mad at himself or at whoever was supposed to be watching the child. Totally NTA.
NTA. You made sure the kid was safe. The comment he made saying, “now social services will be involved” seems suspicious. That wouldn’t be the first thing you would think about, if your kid was missing and then found.
NTA A child that young should have been supervised, obviously they weren’t or they wouldn’t have been alone. If the parents are now worried about social services being involved then that’s their tough sh*t, they shouldn’t have left their very young child unsupervised for at least 20mins! Between the time of the kid being brought to your attention and the police getting there, was 20mins minimum. Only then did the parent come looking for the kid, anything could have happened in that 20mins, thankfully the kid was being looked after someone who gave a crap about the kids safety!
Don’t feel guilty! You did the right thing.
NTA
A toddler was roaming around unsupervised. You contacted law enforcement to make sure they were able to be reunited with the family.
Their own negligence is on them
NTA
I’m a month of 1.5 YO and would have done the same.
If someone is pissed at you for helping their unattended child I would be concerned and think it’s best that social services does get involved.
If you didn’t recognize the kid and didn’t know where he lived there really wasn’t another reasonable option for you to do. NTA! Kids wonder off all the time the family is lucky he was found by reasonable people and he is okay.
NTA.
As someone who has been on his end of this, he is annoyed and it will be a hassle BUT…like I told myself when this happened…keep a better eye on the kids and this won’t happen.
Thank you for trying to keep the child safe. That timeline means a small toddler was unattended by their parents for 20 minutes. With the length of things that could have happened in that timeframe dad should be happy it’s just a CPS open and closed case.
NTA, you looked in the immediate vicinity for where the baby belonged and couldn’t find anyone. The child had already been unattended for several minutes before your resident alerted you. I might have done the same thing. Yes, CPS will likely follow up, but if it was just a single incident and the family shows they’ve created safeguards to keep it from happening again it will be fine.
The family only started looking for the 1.5 years old kid once the police arrived, so 15mins later??? CPS absolutely should get involved.
NTA
NTA. “I’d rather you be mad at me for calling the cops, than for NOT calling the cops.”
NTA. My baby is close to this age and is nowhere near capable of being on his own outside. I would WANT someone to call the police if he got out on his own because no child that young is safe outside, unsupervised. A caring community is a good thing. You did the right thing.