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Shortly before 10 a.m., patrolling Marshall police observed a 3-year-old girl standing in the yard of a West Vest Street home.
A West Vest Street resident stated he had been outside walking his dog when the girl had walked out of her home, approached him and began to pet his dog.
The man told her she needed to go home to her parents, and she returned to her home.
When police contacted the girl, she said her mother was at work and her father was sleeping.
Police arrested a subject at the residence on suspicion of endangering the welfare of a child.
Contact Geoff Rands at marshallreporter@socket.net
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He was arrested because he endangered the child by not paying attention to her.
He was arrested more quickly, probably partially due to the outrage over how long it took to press charges in the last case.
This does not "just happen"...kids escape when their parents aren't paying proper attention to them.
Believe what you want mrxray, but there are plenty of us out there who haven't ever had our kids escape. Doesn't make us perfect parents - but it does mean that we're paying attention to our children all the time.
Again.... I am not sure why the man was arrested. The STORY in this paper AGAIN lacks any information regarding this information and therefore is VERY limited in its usefulness. I am not sure why it is necessary to write a story about SOME of the cases where someone is arrested without having ALL of the information from all sides. It leads to speculation and assumptions and judgements that cause people to make uneducated and misinformed comments on these message boards...
Again, children are curious by nature. As did someone else on here, I was a very adventuresome child and exercised that feeling regularly. I was able to get around most any deterent if I wanted to so I could get outside to play with the neighbor's dog or whatever I was wanting to do.
I have 3 kids and when they were young they too were the same way and even WITH high door locks and monitors and vigilance, they DID do things like this on occasion.
I get tired of people saying that THEY are perfect parents and NEVER EVER let their kids 'escape'. If this trend keeps up, the police will soon just start detaining EVERYONE for SOMETHING that is silly. Whats next, arrested for letting your child's ball roll into the street?
Is the city and county that hard up for revenue that they have a quota for the police and SD personnel so that there is a steadier income from fines? lol I mean they already fine people for feeding starving or stray animals!
jamhenk -
Give it up - according to the majority of people on these boards, people are in fact unable to notice when their kids wander outdoors! I got attacked repeatedly for saying the same things you have on the previous story about the babysitter. Apparently you and I are the only two parents who routinely take precautions to ensure that this doesn't happen!
I agree with all your points in their entirety - but you're just going to get told that you couldn't POSSIBLY be the kind of parent you are. Take solace in the fact that YOUR kid won't wander outdoors and be placed at risk!
oh landreth, of course I have children, two as a matter of fact. Neither of them has ever "escaped!" Yes they have woken up before me, I hear them and get up! Baby monitors work wonders, even for older children. Locks at the tops of doors also keep children inside. These are simple concepts, why can't Marshallites get it?
Has no one ever had their child wake up before them? Is anyone out there a PERFECT parent? Never made a mistake? Kept an eye on them ALL of the time-never out of your sight? NEVER had to learn from a mistake? Or are the ones judging the hardest even have kids?
I am so tired of people saying these things happen!! They only happen to parents who are not properly supervising their children!! If you need to sleep, get a reliable babysitter, do not sleep and leave your children unattended!!! How many more children have to wander outside before parents get it?!!!
This stuff is not unusual. Kids wonder outside if they are left unattended. The father may have worked the night shift and was sleeping and did not hear the child get up. Maybe the little girl has always been told not to go outside and when she saw the dog, she just went to see it. I worked nights and as a single mother sometimes my children got up before I did. They were taught to never go outside or answer the door when I was asleep. They usually woke me up when they woke up because thats what I told them to do, but sometimes they just watched TV til I got up or called their grandmother. My point is sometimes things like this occur but to charge the father with this is a little crazy. He did not intentionally put her in harms way, he made a bad call for not putting locks on the door, but I believe he never would have dreamed the little girl would just leave the house.
litlmissme: I am not a child molester, or a rapist. This is the whole reason I sat on the porch with the little boy instead of taking him inside. I got a few tissues and wiped his face off while my boyfriend went around the block looking for people outside. Less than 3 minutes later his dad came. I didn't want to take the boy inside then end up having to call the cops making me look like I kidnapped the kid seeing him in my fathers house.
They have things that go around the door knob and it is not very hard to install a chain lock out of reach of the child on the door--
I know that things happen but in the summer time you see little, little ones outside playing on Odell St, no adult in sight-- why are these parents not prosecuted--
MyVoiceIsHeard:
It is a good thing you are not a child molester, or murderer! The outcome could have been much different!
You can buy battery door alarms for just a few bucks. They are set to go off if the door or even windows are opened by anyone. Very cheap at the stores. China Mart might even have them? But they are loud and they will wake you and very easy to install. Most have double sided tape with them...Just a thought!
What I was curious about is how are these kids getting out? Put locks on the very top of the doors! Use child safety gates. I know that it is very easy to fall asleep while your child is sleeping, them wake up and not bother to let you know they are awake.
This seems like an ongoing issue in this town. It is a common mistake as parents often underestimate their child's abilities. You can not watch your child every second of the day, but you can make it a lot harder for them to get out of the house!
Parents should be more cautious. Be smarter then your child.
Last summer I found a little boy on the corner while going to visit my father. I knew the people that had lived at the house and they weren't at home. I went up to the little boy, he was crying, I asked him where his mommy or daddy were. Unfortunately the little boy was barely old enough to tie his shoe and was very upset that he had no idea where his mommy and daddy were. It was in the middle of summer, I figured he had just got out of sight of the parents remembering how my little cousins wandered off a lot in a blink of an eye. I sat with the little boy on the front porch and waited for a parent. No need to call the cops unless I was unable to locate the parents. They blow it out of proportion and sometimes stuff like this just happens!
So the neighbor told her she needed to go home and she did. I guess he was in too big of a hurry to call police to actually walk the little girl home.
I am confused why was the man arressted because he was in the house or because mpd had nothing to do....
I am totally amazed at the way things work in this town sure this person should have been paying
more attention to the 3 year old. There is people in this town that are driving around with children in the front seat of their car with no seatbelts, up against the dash, a 2yr old was killed in Sedalia recently in a car accident in a 5point safety seat. But there is no one available to go after this issue when authorities are called! Police can go to houses where people are totally intoxicated to the point they barely can stand and smoking around children with asthma and the children are up way after midnight, Police can do nothing in these instances. What are the differences in these circumstances?
Why was this man arrested, when the last case of a wandering child took weeks for charges to be brought?!