Missing 3-year-old found alone in middle of the night

A three-year-old alone, lost in the cold night, nothing but a blanket to keep him warm.

It was a terrifying reality for parents who had no idea where their baby boy was.

“Parents basically said that the child wandered off late last night,” said Lisa Greenberg, Public Information Specialist at Cape Coral Police Department. “Of course, they were really concerned, add to the fact that the child was only in a diaper. It was a chilly night, and this child does have some developmental disabilities.”

Cape Coral police found the boy hiding under his blanket at a home that was under construction.

Officers responded to a home all the way at the end of northwest 13th Street in Cape Coral Thursday night. They started searching and saw a nearby home with security cameras video showed the little boy walking around the home. You then saw him walk off in this direction and then it was only a matter of time before he was found on the lanai of another home.

Officers arrived in the 2400 block of NW 13th Street in Cape Coral and checked the security camera that showed the boy at 11:45 p.m.

“And they were able to see that just a few minutes after the child had gone missing. That child was actually in the front yard of that home, they could see him playing he was playing with a toy. Then they saw him wander to the backyard and walk off,” Greenberg said.

Telling officers what direction he went, in the dark of night, the parents worried beyond words for half an hour, but then one deputy found their son.

He was on the lanai, wrapped in a blanket, just a street down from his home.

He was not hurt and was reunited with his parents.

Cape Coral PD public affairs officer Mercedes Phillips said their family is the perfect candidate for Project Lifesaver.

“Whether it’s someone with a developmental disability, Alzheimer’s, autism, anything like that, so we’ll take the bracelets that have a frequency within it, and we’ll use that frequency to locate and track the person that went missing,” Phillips said.

Cape Coral police said this wasn’t a case of parental negligence.

The parents were home, they were watching the kid, and they did the right thing. As soon as they couldn’t find, him they called 911.

If you are curious about Project Lifesaver for your loved one, click here.