Wandering 4-year-old taken to children's center

**Willowdared** · 02-12-07, 07:54 PM

Wandering 4-year-old taken to children's center

UNION-TRIBUNE BREAKING NEWS TEAM
9:59 a.m. February 12, 2007
SAN MARCOS – A 4-year-old girl was found wandering around a Wal-Mart parking lot Sunday night and deputies determined hours later that she had walked away from her father's nearby apartment.

The father seemed “somewhat unconcerned” when he was contacted by deputies more than four hours after they found the child, and he told authorities he would pick his daughter up in the morning, said sheriff's Sgt. Dave Schaller.

The girl was found in the Wal-Mart parking lot on Center Drive near Nordahl Road shortly after 9:30 p.m. Deputies could not find the child's mother and she was taken to the Polinsky's Children Center, the county's emergency shelter.
About 2 a.m., deputies learned the child had walked away from her father's apartment on Nordahl and contacted him about his missing child.

Schaller said child-abuse detectives plan to follow up on the case.

**Willowdared** · 02-12-07, 07:56 PM

2-year-old found wandering, mother arrested

UNION-TRIBUNE BREAKING NEWS TEAM
7:18 a.m. February 12, 2007

CHULA VISTA – A 24-year-old pregnant woman was arrested on suspicion of child endangerment early Monday morning after her 2-year-old son was found wandering unattended around a motel, police said.

Police arrested the woman shortly before 4 a.m. after a concerned resident at the Travel Inn on Broadway near G Street called police. The resident had found the boy and watched him for about an hour before calling authorities, said police Lt. Lon Turner.

Officers found the woman when she returned to the motel after being out, Turner said. “Literally, a few hours she was gone,” he said

The child was taken to the Polinsky Children Center, the county's emergency shelter.