Two-year-old boy who climbed from cot, walked mile from home, reunited with parents
By David Raleigh
A young man has been hailed a hero after helping to reunite a toddler with his family after the boy dramatically disappeared from the family home in the early hours of this morning.
The two-and-a-half-year-old opened the front door of his home in Garryowen and walked about a mile along the Dublin Road at around 2.20am.
A 21-year old man found the boy wandering along the road and alerted gardaí.
Gardaí at Henry Street station took the boy into protective custody as they tried to ascertain where his family lived.
According to gardaí, a door left open at the boy's house was what led investigating officers to the parents of the toddler who were completely unaware the toddler had left home.
Gardaí woke the occupants, who were shocked to learn that the boy had climbed out of his cot before letting himself out the front door. The boy, who turns three this summer, was reunited with his shocked but delighted parents at around 4am.
According to gardaí he was unharmed.
"He was absolutely fine thankfully, nothing untoward happened, and his mother was delighted and relieved to be reunited with him," Chief Supt Sheahan said.
He also praised the actions of the hero passer-by who alerted the gardaí and who went on to search a number of estates near where he had found the child.
"That little boy is incredibly lucky. It's amazing he managed to get out of the house like that, and it's even more fortunate he wasn't knocked down by a car or worse, kidnapped," a local man said at hearing the news.
