Authorities are investigating an incident in which an 18-month-old boy allegedly wandered away from a daycare center in College Park Thursday morning.
Natasha Chapman said her husband Erishon, dropped off their son, who will be 2 in August, and their 1-year-old daughter at the Kings Preschool Learning Center at 5951 Thomas Court around 7:30 a.m. and then returned home because he had the day off from work.
The daycare is only about a block away from the Chapmans' home in the 2000 block of Sitser Lane.
About four hours later, their landlord, who lives in an apartment over the garage of their home, saw the boy walking in the middle of Sitser Lane, heading home. The landlord ran outside and grabbed the boy and brought him home, the Chapmans said.
"Thank God for my neighbor, you know, and thank God we don't live in a bad neighborhood, because anything could have happened," Natasha Chapman said.
Clayton County police and the state Division of Family and Children's Services are investigating the incident, said Clayton County police spokesman Lt. Chris Windley.
A preliminary investigation indicates the boy might have somehow slipped out of a back fence, Windley said. He said police would not charge the daycare's owner with a crime at this time but continue to investigate.
The Chapmans said they won't return their children to the daycare center and want police to bring charges against its owner. The children had only begun attending the daycare on Monday, they said.
The parents said they have no idea how long their child was missing and were angry because they said the daycare did not call to tell them their child was gone.
Octavia D. King, who is listed as the owner of Kings Preschool in a College Park city daycare directory, was unavailable to talk about the incident Thursday.
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