OMG
Toddler Who Wandered Into Heavy Traffic Saved in the Nick of Time by a Total Stranger
The parents of a 2-year-old named Samira Dawson are probably feeling extremely sheepish if not altogether ashamed today after their little girl was found walking into a traffic-heavy street. The toddler wandered out of her Bronx home barefoot, wearing nothing more than a onesie and a diaper, all by herself yesterday, and reportedly ended up at the double line in the middle of the street.
The only silver lining to the totally disturbing tale? A quick-thinking Good Samaritan named Martin Rodriguez, who works as a Pepsi deliveryman and is a father himself, managed to scoop her up and save her. Ugh.
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Rodriguez told The New York Post:
As a father, this is nuts! I have a little girl the same age and it crushed me to see this. ... She dropped her little bookbag in the middle of the street, and that's all she was worried about.
Apparently, in the series of events that unfolded as Samira was spotted by onlookers, an unidentified woman grabbed the child and gave her to a Parkchester public safety sergeant, who called cops.
Samira's 20-year-old brother Davante Valentine showed up at the scene, and explained:
I don’t know what happened. All I know is I was sleeping and my [18-year-old brother] was supposed to be watching her and he left the house without telling me.
But where on earth was the little girl's mother? Ingrid Dawson told cops she had gone to the pharmacy that morning, and when she learned what had happened to Samira, she yelled at her son, "You were supposed to be watching her." Woooow ...
Obviously there are always going to be cases of miscommunication when it comes to child care, but this seems like major irresponsibility was at play. As much as Ingrid may hope she could trust her 18- and 20-year-old sons to watch their 2-year-old sister, they clearly weren't up to the task. And as a result, the little girl's life was endangered. So scary.
Thankfully, police and child-protective services are investigating the incident. No charges have been filed, but hopefully they're able to get to the bottom of it so that Samira's safety is never again compromised in such a potentially devastating way.
Can you believe this?!
Image via Ray Devlin/Flickr
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Heather O'Neil
Doomy234
At least she attempted to leave her child with an adult instead of alone or with another child that was not an adult. I have definitely seen worse parents. For example, I had to pull my neighbor's kid out of the street once because the lady was too busy chatting on the phone and lighting up a cigarette to realize her child had wandered into the road. Then she gave me a dirty look like how dare I be pulling him out of the way of cars coming down the road. God forbid I had the audacity to save her kid's life.
Kelly Healan
Wow. Judgy McJudgerson much. Sounds exactly like a miscommunication. She didn't leave the child by herself or even with a young sibling. She left her child with 2 (count them, 1, 2) grown adults. Granted, probably not the most responsible adults, but who is to say that she hasn't done so before and this is the first incident of something dangerous. I think the author needs to get off her high horse.
Samantha
femaleMIKE
She left the child in the care of her adult son. Unfortunately things like this do happen. Fortunately, Samira was saved.
My cousin came home one time to her 3 year old son sitting on the porch by himself. The father was home. They put a chain link on the door after that, hopefully Samira's mother does the same.
Jessy Roos
mommytojack0524
Isn't it too cold in Brooklyn for a toddler to have on nothing but a onesie? And bare feet? Even inside, my son wears more than that (in Oklahoma!).
LeeshaE
Don't judge unless you know the whole story, maybe you have been fortunate enough not to have such an experience but that doesn't make this mom negligent. When my dad was a toddler he used to get out of my grandparents house all the time, they even put a locking deadbolt on the door and hid the key in a high cupboard and he would scale the counter and get the key all while they were asleep, then visit the elderly neighbors for cookies. But toddlers are crafty creature even the cautious watching eye sometimes isn't enough.
AliNoelle
havva