Woman finds toddler wandering near busy Fort Myers street

FORT MYERS, Fla. A toddler was returned home Tuesday morning after a woman found him wandering alone near a busy street.

The woman, who wished to remain anonymous, was driving on Jean Street near Alico Road just after 9 a.m. when she saw a little boy, who appeared to be under two years old, walking in the road with two dogs.

“The child had no clothes, he just had a diaper on,” she said. “He was barefoot, walking on the stones in the gravel where all the dump trucks are going in and out.”

The woman immediately pulled over and picked him up. She asked a couple of employees from a nearby golf cart repair shop if the boy belonged to any of them.

“I’m like, ‘Whose baby is this?’ And they’re they’re looking at me like I’m crazy and I’ve lost my mind,” she said. “Then they saw the baby and are like, ‘I don’t know whose baby this is.'”

However, the men did tell her the dogs belonged to the owners of a home at 17301 Jean St.

When the woman arrived at the home, she found the front door wide open. The babysitter then came out and thanked the woman profusely. The babysitter’s husband, who is also the owner of the home, said she was watching the boy for his mother and the toddler got out after the door was somehow opened.

“At that point, I didn’t really know what to do, so I went back out to my vehicle,” the woman said.

Then, she called Lee County deputies and filed a report.

“I hope the baby is safe,” she said.

The boy is currently with his mother. It is unclear how long he had been missing.

The sheriff’s office couldn’t be reached for comment.