Unsupervised children found wandering in parking lot

Officers from the Bloomington Police Department responded to a complaint Sunday that three young children had been wandering around a parking lot unsupervised for several hours.

When police responded, BPD Detective Sgt. John Kovach said officers observed the three children in the parking lot of Wapehani Hill Apartments on South Oakdale Drive.

The oldest, a boy, is three years old. The two others were girls, one who is a year and a half old and one who is seven months old. The witness who called police told law enforcement he first observed the children outside alone at about 1:30 p.m. Police received the call at about 6:20 p.m.

None of the children were wearing shoes, Kovach said, and the youngest was found chewing on a metal screw found in the parking lot.

While outside, the man who called the authorities told police the children were trying to get into his apartment and asked for food because they were hungry.

Kovach said the 3-year-old was able to tell officers the first name of his mother but was unable to identify their apartment, so Kovach said officers began knocking on doors to try and locate the mother.

Police then successfully located the 22-year-old mother, who Kovach said had just woken up and seemed disoriented. The mother told police she had put the children in bed several hours ago and began to take a nap.

The woman told authorities she had been outside with her children at approximately 1:30 p.m., then laid down to take a nap at approximately 4 p.m. At 1:30 p.m., the witness told authorities he did not observe supervision of the children.

The woman did not appear to police to be under the influence of substances, Kovach said.

After child protective services were notified, custody of the children were released to their mother.

While Kovach said police requested three counts of neglect of dependent, charges against the mother are still pending.

— Mark Keierleber