WOLCOTT, Conn. – A mother in Connecticut is facing charges after police said her toddler was found wandering outside alone while she went out to a store.
Wolcott police said in a Facebook post that they were called when a 2-year-old was found around 9:30 p.m. in a front yard, wet and crying. A neighbor saw the child, who was barefoot and wearing only shorts and a T-shirt, and immediately called the police.
Police told The Register-Citizen that the neighbor heard a dog barking, and when she went to investigate, she saw the next-door neighbor’s dog being followed by the crying child.
When officers went to the home next door where the boy lived, the back door was open, WFSB reported. Officers said the home was empty except for two other dogs.
While officers were checking the house, the boy’s mother, identified as Amanda Milligan, returned home and asked why police were in the house. When she was told her son was found wandering outside, Milligan allegedly told police that she had “left her son alone, because he was fine watching TV.”
Milligan told officers that she thought her husband was on the way home, so she went to Petco, and upon finding the store was closed, went to a gas station to take pictures of her car before coming home, The Register-Citizen reported.
Police called the boy’s father, who immediately left work in New Haven to come home, and told officers he was supposed to work all night, WFSB reported.
Milligan is charged with committing a risk of injury to a minor and is out of jail after posting a $1,500 bond.
