A baby sitter was arrested Monday after police said they found a 3-year-old boy in his care riding a bicycle more than a mile from his home in the middle of traffic.
Douglas Wayne Brown, 27, of Murfreesboro is charged on suspicion of felony child neglect. The boy's mother later told police she left her son in Brown's care at a home on Wenlon Drive.
But police say Brown was sleeping around 10 a.m. when the boy was riding through on-coming traffic. Witnesses said the boy was nearly struck several times while pedaling on North Tennessee Boulevard.
"The child was on the street going in and out of traffic and being chased on foot by a (white female) attempting to get him to stop," Officer David Blackwell reported.
The unknown Good Samaritan told police she became concerned when she saw the young boy riding his bicycle on the busy road.
Police started searching the neighborhoods near the Cedar Park Trailer Court for the child's home. After an hour, police contacted the Department of Children's Services to assist in finding the boy's family, reports show.
With the help of various residents, officials located the boy's grandmother, who lives in the trailer park. The grandmother told police a baby sitter was supposed be at the Wenlon Drive home watching the child.
Officers knocked on the door, but no one answered. With no response, police entered the residence and reportedly found Brown asleep in a bed upstairs.
"Brown stated that he fell asleep and that the child must have gotten out," Blackwell stated in the report.
The boy's mother told police Brown was not her usual baby sitter, but called him when her regular sitter was unavailable. She told officials she woke Brown up before leaving for work Monday morning.
"Tracing the route that the child took, it is possible that he rode in excess of one mile," Blackwell stated. DCS will continue an investigation to ensure the child's welfare, the officer added.
Brown was booked at the Rutherford County jail on felony child neglect charges. Bond was set at $5,000.
A preliminary hearing is set for Dec. 5 in General Sessions Court.
"Never try to teach a pig to sing; It wastes your time and annoys the pig." - Heinlein
Thats sad. In a way i understand falling asleep but where talking about taking care of a 3 year old. He needed to wake up and saty awake, maybe call the grandmother and say "hey im tired can i bring someone to help me watch the kid so i can sleep?" And only $5,000 bond seems to little. should be o say $50,000....
Sounds like Mom should have to answer for not getting a better babysitter in the first place. From the story, it looks like she just woke him up and said "I've got to go to work, watch the kid".
Guy fell back asleep, and 3 years being 3 year olds, the kid took off to find the nearest Toys-R-Us.
Mom should have locked the doors on her way out to the car. Maybe made sure the guy was up and running before she took off.
I'm not saying that's the way it happened or didn't, just that the news has a way of leaving out a lot of the facts.
Still shaking my head at the charges against another kid for "stockpiling an arsenal" (according to the news). What they didn't bother to show was, all but ONE of the 20 or so "weapons" they displayed across a table as police evidence were AIRSOFT (toy) guns.
I'd be perfectly happy if the news media wasn't there, and we got our info off of more reliable and less biased sources, such as Taro cards, the neighborhood gosip, and Oprah.
