Police: Toddlers dropped off at wrong home
BY TINA SFONDELES Staff Reporter tsfondeles@suntimes.com February 10, 2012 11:16PM
Police said this child was abandoned Friday, Feb. 10, 2012 on the South Side. Anyone with information about the child is asked to call Wentworth Area detectives at (312) 747-8385.
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Updated: March 13, 2012 10:37AM
Two toddlers dropped off at the wrong South Side home Friday night didn’t know where they were and couldn’t say their names.
They had been handed off in the frigid cold to a 15-year-old boy at an unfamiliar home. Just hours after police issued an alert in hopes of identifying the children, family members reached out. But both toddlers were placed in the care of protective custody by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.
Police are piecing together why a man — believed to be employed at a day care center — dropped the children off on the porch of a stranger’s home in the 7100 block of South Normal.
For Ida Brown, the delivery of the kids to her home was a bit frightening.
“It was quite a shock for me,” Brown said Saturday.
Still, Brown said the kids were at least delivered to a place where people would be willing to help them find their way home. The toddlers couldn’t say their names and didn’t know where they came from. Police were immediately called and arrived within 15 minutes, she says.
Brown, a mother of four, said she thinks the man who dropped the kids off was aggravated because he had been waiting and honking his horn outside the home for about 30 minutes.
“The man just got out and then pretty much handed the kids and left,” Brown said. “My nephew just thought, here’s a strange gentleman with two kids. I have to bring these kids in because they have to be cold.”
Both children appeared to be in good health. They had clean clothing, clean diapers and the boy had a fresh haircut, she said. “They had brand name clothes and looked very well taken care of and healthy. They were just scared because they didn’t know who we were, and then when officers arrived and were walking around, that made them even more nervous,” Brown said. She said police later told her that they had located their mother.
Police spokesman Veejay Zala said they don’t plan to file charges in the case.
“The incident has been determined to be of a non-criminal nature,” Zala said. He said DCFS would continue to investigate.
Contributing: Adeshina Emmanuel, James Scalzitti
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