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Toddler makes late-night run for chocolate... alone
Categories: Toddlers, Health & Safety, Weird But True
(Click the photo for more shocking escapes!)
Here's a boy after my very own heart. Three-year-old Max McGrath woke up at 3 A.M. and decided he wanted a chocolate egg. So he put on his brother's shoes, grabbed some money, and even remembered his house key. Then he walked a mile and a half to the supermarket. What he hadn't counted on, of course, was the store being closed. As he stood outside, no doubt disappointed, he was spotted by a delivery driver who picked him up. The boy was safely delivered home to his shocked parents.
 Did you hear about the toddler that drove himself to Applebee's? Or the boy who missed the bus and claimed he was kidnapped? How about the children who broke into a daycare to steal popsicles and Play-Doh, or the teens that went for a joyride in a steam locomotive? |
In all seriousness, this situation could have ended badly. Max's parents call him an "adventurous" boy, but say they never thought he'd try something like this. I woke up early one Sunday about a year ago and spotted my neighbor's two-year-old standing on the curb across the street, munching on an apple. When I returned him home, his parents had a similar reaction -- shock and awe. My own kids won't even venture downstairs in the morning without one of us in tow, so it's hard to imagine them making a cross-town trek in the middle of the night.
What about you? Are you raising an escape artist? If so, do you have a plan in place to prevent your little one from getting out without you noticing?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 9)
Pavlina 8-08-2008 @ 10:46AM
Oh yes, I could see one of mine doing this. It is why we have a locking deadbolt on our front door, the kind with the key!
I was at the gym and I was paged because my DS had snuck away to wait on the chairs in the foyer for me! Good thing he didn't try to go to the car!
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Former sailor 8-09-2008 @ 12:09AM
Pavlina: Pardon my ignorance, but after almost forty years of being a parent and grandparent, I have never heard a child referred to as a "DS." Can someone please translate for me? And maybe even explain why you can't refer to your child as a son or daughter?
brittlajo 8-09-2008 @ 12:28AM
Former Sailor -
DS - Darling Son
DD - Darling Daughter
DH - Darling Husband
I remember wondering the same thing some time ago!
JJCBE 8-09-2008 @ 12:29AM
'DS' means Dear Son. 'DD' means 'Dear Daughter'. 'DH' means 'Dear Husband.' =)
Bobby G 8-09-2008 @ 12:38AM
Finally, a response to that question about "DS". I'm not even going to ask which is more popular, "Darling" or "Dear". Where I was looking it meant, "Down Syndrome".
sadeyes 8-09-2008 @ 2:01AM
Omg my little girl gets a chair and stands on it and unlock my boltlock she wakes up in the morinig and opens my door i wake up the door is open she standing there lookin out but wont go out. But i had a very serious talk w her she stopped....
karen 8-09-2008 @ 4:51AM
At age 61 now I remember still to my horror. Waking up to a knock on the door peeking out the peephole to see two officers standing at the door. Not being able to imagine what they wanted I opened the door to see my then 2 and a half year old at their feet. I about keeled over at that point. One of the officers said is this your son? I said yes and he said he was about a mile away he had been walking to my older son's school. Not wanting to be left out. I also had the chain lock on and he had stood on a chair to escape. God bless us all that somethings turn out good. I blame him for my early gray hair arrival.
joanna.beamon 8-09-2008 @ 3:35AM
My dd's are all grown up now but that is one extremely smart boy. His parents are in for more adventures from him because he is very intelligent and I would suggest that they take more actions to secure their entire house so he will not take adventures on his own anymore. I had a child who at two decided to feed herself every night and I had to chain up the refrigerator to keep her from going in it and possibly locking herself inside suffocating and dying. That one is now in college and taking 2 majors and getting a teaching certificate on top of it. This time every thing turned out wonderful for the little guy, but next time may not be so great. He is smart and too smart at the moment for his own good. So to the parents, please watch that little man extra carefully. But this is a good piece of advice I learned never ever underestimate a kid, they are all smart and as a parent you got to be six steps ahead of them always.
bekkit1234 8-10-2008 @ 5:24PM
I that it is a good idea to have a lock on the door that prevents the children from sneaking out at night. But what about the risk of having a lock that can only be open by a key. I lived somewhere that the only doors had to be open and locked with a key. As a parent this was very scary for me. What if there is a fire or something happens to you. The last thing that is going to be on my mind is where did I put my keys; it would be just to get out.
Linda 8-10-2008 @ 6:51PM
My first thought was son was slipping out the back door and knocking on the front. Scared me to death, that I wasnt watching him closely enough. But that wasnt the case... after about the 5th time in about an hours.. I walked out the back door and strolled to the front and waited for my darling son. He was so adgile... had cut the screen and rolled out the window and stood on the windowsill, feet out the window and when he rolled over to drop to the ground.... I wore out his bottom, for cutting my screen and told him window are made to crawl out of, but only in an emergency.
The next experience was... I woke up at 5 am to find every light in the house on, my front door open to the public and my back door open. The spa cover was opened and in his bed was a naked little boy. That was the day that I put inside dead bolts on the door and the key was closest to my heart.. My son was next closest.
Kellie 8-08-2008 @ 10:51AM
Two times my now 5-year-old got out early in the morning when he was two and three. He was delivered back to me both times by an elderly gentleman who drives his golf cart to the golf course every morning at 6:00 am. To things here that were horrible. The first was that he got out and something horrific could have happened to him. The second thing was having him brought back to me by the same person.
Thank God he was fine and just playing on the sidewalk both times.
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LynetteTholkes 8-09-2008 @ 12:37AM
My son Michael was and still is an escape artist. You can look at him non stop and he magicallly diappears before your eyes! When he was 4, he walked 4 miles to the freeway (in So Cal, thats a big deal for any age!) to go to grandmas's house. He was picked up on the entrance ramp by a woman who bribed him with ice cream to tell him where he lived. He was returned unharmed. We never thought he would live to the age of 5, but at age 26, he has defied all odds! Gotta laugh, or you would lose your mind!
Juanita 8-09-2008 @ 2:50AM
When my oldest son was 3 yo we lived in Chicago near Wrigley Field. One day he decided he wanted to see the fire trucks that are across the street from the ball park. This is about 6 blocks from where we lived and he had to cross 3 main streets - twice! Then he decided to walk back home but didn't remember where so he just started walking - and walked 9 more blocks away from home. The police finally found him when someone called from a store and said they had a lost boy who was very upset because they wouldn't give him any candy. He is now 52 yo and doesn't like me to tell this story. lol
Erin 8-08-2008 @ 11:32AM
My daughter escaped out of my second floor apartment while my (now ex) husband was asleep and I was at work. She was ONE. A neighbor brought her to my apartment offices and the ex woke up when he heard the whoop-whoop of a siren in the complex. I just couldn't believe she got down the concrete steps without falling.
SCARY!
She's still an escape artist, and she can open both the lock on the doorknob and the deadbolt at the ripe old age of 2 1/4. I'm about to get the key-lock type myself!
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kay 8-08-2008 @ 8:38PM
my 2 year old use to take really long naps because she was so active when awake. one time when she was taking a nap i was watching her sister play in the back yard and continually would go in check the baby and go back out. i thought the nap was taking a little long and when i checked the sheets were rumpled and no baby!! needless to say i was panicked and called the police and being a friday at 4pm i nearly missed being able to get my baby back for the weekend since they had found the infant a block away and taken her to child welfare. we believe she was walking to her baby sitter that lived down that block. we quickly installed a lock to high for her to reach on the screen door and kept it locked.
lisa 8-08-2008 @ 9:08PM
I have a gate on the bedroom door, footlock on backdoor, chain on the front door and now an alarm.. When someone opens any door or window, it chimes and if it set at night the alarm will blare... The alarm is all you need.
darmelmoon 8-08-2008 @ 9:43PM
My son walks in his sleep when he gets upset. He also can unlock the deadbolt. We got those alarms that stick to the door and door frame and keep them turned on any time we are home. He can't reach the alarm and if he ever tries to get out it wakes me up and (added bonus) scares the crap out of him. He only tried to escape once after we put them on. Now he only goes to the door if I am standing there holding it open! :)
Sabrina 8-08-2008 @ 11:48AM
I have an escape artist too. While my DS was at the babysitter's one evening (he was about 18 months old, so this was about 6 months ago) one of the bigger kids (about 3 years old) opened the sliding glass door and forgot to shut it. She didn't keep it locked because she is licensed and it's a fire exit, so it has to remain unlocked. She was in the kitchen washing up dinner dishes and talking to the kids. She didn't realize my little guy was gone because he is one of those quiet sneaky types. I came in and noticed he wasn't there (he'd been gone maybe 5 or 10 minutes total) and started to freak out. A search of her yard turned up nothing and she was freaking out too of course. I was walking over to the neighbor's yard where some older boys were playing to see if they'd seen anything when I spotted my little guy coming around the side of her house. He was not wearing a coat or shoes and was just giggling and running around like nothing was the matter. It was February!!!! I got him inside, and she was apologizing over and over, but actually I wasn't mad at her. He is sneaky and quiet and she was usually a really observant person. I still took them back there (and she kept a MUCH better eye on that door, none of the kids had ever opened it before that day, or since). My biggest concern was that he could have been run over by a car, or eaten by a mountain lion (it was sunset) or even been picked up by a neighbor that didn't read his medic alert bracelet and fed him something he's deadly allergic to. After that I alerted all her neighbors and all of mine about his allergies and told them to be on the look out for him and his medic alert bracelet if he escaped again.
At our house we always had sliding chain locks up really high where the kids couldn't reach, and now in our new house we have baby gates on the stairs that they can't figure out and key bolts on all the doors leading outside. I really do worry about them going outside!
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Natalie 8-08-2008 @ 10:27PM
Be careful where you have those gates near the stairs. At the bottom is one thing but at the top could be a reallly bad scenerio.
Deidre 8-09-2008 @ 1:19AM
WOW!! Im shocked that you parents havent had the smarts to child proof your homes and I know 4-5 years ago..they were talking about protecting your kids. You know they didnt just start snatching children and harming them yesterday folks...wise up please protect your kids!!! You are taking this all too lightly...