CLAYTON COUNTY, Ga. — Authorities said they have found the parents of a toddler found alone in Clayton County overnight.
According to police, the 3-year-old girl, who had no shoes on, walked up to a home in the area of Bimini Drive in Forest Park Friday morning and knocked on the door. She told the woman inside, "I need my mommy."
Channel 2's Rikki Klaus was in Clayton County, where she talked to the neighbor who found the girl.
Tina Brown said she woke up to the sound of a loud knock on her door around 3 a.m. When she went to the door, she found the child shivering on her doorstep.
"She was shivering, so I wrapped her up and put her in a robe, and I went across the street to ask, 'Do you know this baby?'" Brown told Klaus.
Brown said she asked the girl where her mother was, and she said her mother was at work.
"She couldn't explain where she lived," Brown said.
Brown made her hot chocolate, tucked her in bed and turned on cartoons. She also called police.
Clayton County police could not locate the child's parents either, at first, so they sent a photo to Channel 2 Action News.
Around 12:30 p.m. Friday, police said they had located the girl's parents. Police said she was supposed to have been in the care of a babysitter, who called police around noon when she noticed the child was not in the home.
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Brown has serious questions about whether or not that story is true and cried on the phone when Klaus first talked to her. She said the knock was so loud it sounded like a police officer banging on the door.
"That wasn't that baby knocking like that," Brown said. "Somebody deliberately dropped her off and left her there if you want to hear from my understanding."
She wonders why a babysitter who police said was supposed to watch the girl didn't call police until around lunchtime.
“I feel that, if you’re going to watch somebody’s child, treat them as if they’re your child," Brown said. "But you’re not going to tell me, at 9 o'clock in the morning, you still hadn’t realized that baby was gone.”
Severe Weather Team 2 said the child could have been at risk of hypothermia if Brown hadn't helped her.
The Department of Children and Family Services is doing a welfare check to see if the girl will be fit to go home. At this time, police say they will not press charges.
Cox Media Group
