Toddler goes for 3 a.m. stroll, D.A’s office declines to charge mother

The District Attorney’s Office on Wednesday declined to file charges against a Glendale mother who was arrested early Tuesday morning after her 3-year-old son was found wandering in his pajamas slightly less than half a mile from his home while carrying a tablet computer, police said.

A good Samaritan was driving to work at 2:49 a.m. when she saw the boy trying to cross the street near a Rally’s Hamburgers at San Fernando Road and Brand Boulevard, according to Glendale Police Sgt. Tom Lorenz.

She initially thought he was with someone, Lorenz said. After realizing the boy was alone, however, she made a U-turn and stayed with him in the restaurant parking lot until police arrived.

When police asked the boy his age, he held up three fingers, Lorenz said. The boy was wearing clean pajamas and clean diapers, he added.

Officers noticed the boy was carrying a tablet, so they started flipping through photographs stored on it. That’s when his mother’s photograph appeared, which prompted the boy to shout, “That’s Mommy.”

As police perused the tablet to find the boy’s address, a pair of officers walked with him throughout the neighborhood to help him find his home.

But they couldn’t find his house. Then police discovered an address in the 1900 block of Vassar Street on the computer.

Officers arrived at the Vassar address to find the front door open and the apartment dark.

As police announced their presence and entered the apartment, the boy’s mother reportedly asked, “Where’s my baby? Where’s my baby?”

Upon investigation, police discovered the mother had no prior incidents of child neglect with law enforcement or the Department of Children and Family Services, Lorenz added.

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