Atlanta police arrested the mother of a 4-year-old boy found wandering around a southwest Atlanta apartment complex after the woman returned home later Wednesday morning, discovered the child missing and called 911.
A police spokeswoman said the mother, who left the child home alone while she was at work, was charged with reckless conduct.
A resident of the Woods at Glenrose apartments on Mt. Zion Road called police about 2:30 a.m. after noticing the boy walking around shoeless and wearing only boxer shorts.
"We tried to get him to show us where he lived," Atlanta police Capt. Van Hobbs said.
"He wanted a piggyback ride, so one of my sergeants put him on his shoulders and said he would give him a piggyback ride if he showed us where he lived and carried him about four blocks and the house he showed us wasn't the house," Hobbs told the AJC before daybreak. "So, he got his piggyback ride, and we don't know where he lives."
Shortly after 7:30 a.m., the mystery was solved when a woman from the same complex called police to report that her son was missing.
Atlanta police spokeswoman Kim Jones said the mother, 30-year-old Kristina Maronie, had left the child at home overnight while she went to work.
"The mother came home, noticed the child missing and called police," Jones said. She said Maronie was charged with reckless conduct and taken to the Fulton County Jail.
The boy was taken to Children's Healthcare of Atlanta at Hughes Spalding to be checked out, then was placed in the custody of the Division of Family and Children Services.
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