2 children found wandering Florence streets now safe

Two children — including a toddler — who wandered down Florence streets within a span of eight hours in separate incidents are now safe.

A motorist spotted a 2-year-old girl in the road near All Saints’ Episcopal Church about 7:15 a.m. Thursday on Cherokee Road and immediately reported what he saw to a police officer who was at Sav-Way at Five Points, Florence Police Maj. Carlos Raines said.

“The officer immediately headed in that direction, and while he was on his way, dispatch reported that several other motorists had called about the child,” Raines said. “When the officer got to the scene, there were two ladies there on the side of the road, holding the child.”

Kevin Smith of Florence was one of those motorists. He was on Cherokee, headed toward Five Points, about 7:15 a.m. when he spotted something in the road.

“At first, I wasn’t sure what it was,” Smith said. “But then I got closer and realized, ‘Oh my gosh, that’s a toddler,’” Smith said. “It was walking straight down the road, in the other lane. A lady had stopped and gotten the child. She was holding it, and saying, ‘We’re going to find your momma.’ The guy in front of me had stopped too and was calling the police.”

The motorists didn’t know where the child had come from, so officers began going door-to-door, looking for the child’s parents. In the process, a man emerged from a nearby house, looking distressed. The officers asked him if he was looking for a child, and he said he was, Raines said.

“Apparently, everyone in the home was asleep, and the child got up and was able to unlock the door and get out,” Raines said. “We know this is how it happened, because the child was able to show our officers exactly how she did it.”

The state Department of Social Services was notified of the situation, as is standard procedure in situations like this, Raines said, but no charges were filed in connection with the incident.

In an unrelated incident, a 7-year-old girl was found walking alone along Palmetto Street near Apple Annie’s Deli and Pub about 11:30 p.m. Wednesday. A passing motorist saw the child and stopped. When the motorist asked the child where her mother was, the child said she didn’t know, so the motorist called police, Raines said.

When police arrived, the child told them she lived in an apartment complex along nearby Revell Drive.

“The officers drove the child to the residence and knocked on the door,” Raines said. “They continued to knock and no one answered. So they turned the doorknob and opened the door, thinking the adults might be asleep, and said ‘Police. Anyone home?’ No one was home so they took the child into protective custody.”

About an hour later, the child’s grandmother, and legal guardian, called the police department, Raines said. She said she’d been out driving around, looking for the youngster. The grandmother never called the police to report the child missing during the time she said she was out looking for her, Raines said. When she returned home from searching, she said her neighbors told her the police had the child.

“She came up to the police department and was asked some questions,” Raines said. “She said she had watched the news then gone in her bedroom to read. And that’s when the child left.”

DSS was notified, and the child was placed in the custody of another relative pending the outcome of the agency’s investigation.

No charges were filed by the police department, and none are expected to be filed, Raines said.