This Shouldn't Happen -- EVER!

Last Tuesday I was on my way home from a vet appointment. It was late afternoon, about 4:00, early 'after-work-traffic' time. I have optional routes to take when coming from Bloomington - stay on the interstate or take the county roads. Tuesday I took the county roads since there was construction on the interstate just past the Woodford County line all the way past the El Paso exit.

The county road I take is very narrow and hilly. A couple of the hills are decent-sized, but mostly (since we are in central Illinois) the road just undulates and you really don't notice them when you're driving. This road has a double yellow line down its center for its entire length - maybe two miles - to remind people not to pass and to stay on their side since it is so narrow and undulating. It can be deceiving to us 'flat-landers' - looking like you can see all the road but the small rises and valleys can hide an oncoming car.

Being a 'dog person' and also a 'country person' I keep my attention split between the road ahead of me while watching the ditches and fields alongside the road for anything (deer, dogs, cats, fox, coyote) that might dart out in front of me. This is always a danger, especially now with the corn crop pressing tall and close to the road. My husband has gone "deer hunting" with almost every new vehicle we've had since moving out here 30 years ago. He can attest to how quickly creatures pop out of the fields!

So I was on this narrow county road. There were two cars in front of me and one behind. We were clipping along at a good pace - maybe 55mph. I crested an undulation and saw, all at the same time, a school bus approaching from the opposite direction and a bright spot of red on the shoulder of my side of the road. The shoulder had three mailboxes on it and was very narrow. In order for the cars and bus to pass on the road, each had to hug the shoulder. I eased my speed as I didn't know what the spot of red was, but it was moving so I knew it was a 'creature' of some sort.

As I got close enough to see clearly, I realized it was a child, a toddler! Just then the first car zipped by him and then the second, both squeezing between the child and the school bus. The toddler cringed down against the base of the mailbox that he was near. I had room to get into the other lane as I passed him and as I did, I looked around for a parent or an adult to come and scoop him out of harm's way. I saw no one.

So then I started looking around for a spot to turn around and investigate further, sure that there was a parent around but not sure enough to continue on home in good conscience. I also expected to see the other three cars with me to do the same - or at least one of them. I had to go more than a half mile down the road to the intersection to have a place and room to turn around. The other three cars just continued on their way. I cannot believe they didn't see the child on the shoulder, nor can I believe that they didn't feel the need to stop. Where is their humanity?

By the time I turned around and came back, the toddler was a ways (maybe 200 feet?) down the road walking on the double yellow center line. He was heading away from me and was not visible to oncoming traffic due to the road undulations. My heart was in my throat as I found a safe place to park the car. I called to him as I got out and he turned to me and as he did, he wandered to the edge of the road. Good thing as a car was coming down the road.

This boy was still in diapers, I could feel them under his jeans as I picked him up, and not conversationally verbal so I placed him between 18-24 months of age, but was leaning towards the younger end of that. He was very friendly and not at all afraid. He had a stamped and addressed envelope in his hands and the return address was that of the mailbox where I'd first seen him.

There were four homes in the immediate area - one in the direction he was walking when I got to him, one next to it (and we were in front of it at the time) about 300 feet off the road with kid toys around the house, one back where the mailboxes were clustered, and one well off the road with a gravel lane at least a quarter mile long. This is the house that belonged to the return address on the envelope the boy had. Where did he belong? All the homes I could see clearly were apparently deserted, their owners still at work.

I asked him his name; I asked him where his mommy was; I asked him where he lived. All I got was some random pointing and once a pretty clear "Gramma outside." I pointed to each house and asked him if that was where gramma was and he wasn't real clear, but I got the impression of a negative in each. Clearly the child didn't know where he lived (as if he should at that age!). I decided to go on to the house he was heading towards, but got no answer to my knock. So we walked back to my car. What should I do? Who do I call?

I decided to call the sheriff department since I was out in the county. No luck there as the line was busy. So I called 911 and was patched over to Woodford County (apparently 911 calls go to McLean County and get redirected). The dispatcher took my information and said that she'd send an officer. I was hoping for a county deputy but an El Paso officer arrived instead as he was closest and it wasn't just any officer, it was the El Paso police chief.

Jeff recognized the boy right away. Jeff keeps his horses at the boarding facility that adjoins the toddler's parents' property. Jeff also knows the boy's grandfather. He told me that this wasn't surprising to him since several times the boy's young sibling would wander over to the horse barn with no adult supervision and he'd have to take her back home when he was ready to leave. He said that he never saw anyone looking for the child or expressing any concern over her absence. Now I was thinking, "Why didn't you report this neglect? You're a cop!"

I asked Jeff if this would be reported to DCFS and he said it would be up to the county since I called it in to 911. WTF? I didn't know that child neglect and endangerment reports were optional, but what did I know? Personally, I think I would have reported it, or at least run it by my friend who is a case worker at DCFS (Dept. of Children and Family Services) for her opinion, but that's just me, I guess.

Jeff took the boy and drove him down the at-least-a-quarter-mile-long lane. I couldn't even see the house from the road; it was that long and also took a bend around a corn field. Why was a toddler allowed to wander that far from home? And where were his supervising adults? It would have taken him at least 10 minutes to walk that lane and that would be if he wasn't distracted along the way. From the time I saw him on the shoulder until the time Jeff took him, more than a half an hour had passed. Adding in the time it would have taken him to travel that long lane; the boy was missing for at least 45 minutes!!!!

I headed home, shaking in delayed reaction to what could have happened if I hadn't stopped. Thank God there was construction on I-39 which made me decided to take the back way home. That child would have been split open like a watermelon by some unknowing driver zipping home down that hilly road.

The next day I went to pick up my friend's German shepherd dogs that I was scheduled to bathe. This is the friend who works at DCFS. So of course I told her about what happened, joking that I got her a new client. She told me that I should report it to the Child Abuse hotline because she doubted that Jeff would report it. So taking her advice, I called. They couldn't find a report and the gal at the hotline requested that I call the responding department and find out if they reported it to DCFS and then to call her back and let her know. Just because she couldn't find a report didn't mean it wasn't made, several circumstances, including spelling, could prevent a match. (Ineffective, in my opinion, but this is Illinois who has the dubious distinction of having the most governors in prison!)

I called the El Paso police department and Jeff was the one who answered the phone. I asked him if it had been reported to DCFS as I thought that it was at least child neglect. His story was lame at the best. According to him a county deputy arrived just as he was handing the child over to his grandfather. They had been searching all over for him and were afraid that he had fallen into the farm pond(!!!) since they couldn't find him.

The boy had supposedly been watched by his mother, but apparently she forgot to do that. They had seen my car sitting on the road in the mouth of their lane but didn't go up to investigate. (I could have abducted that child and no one would have even looked at me.) Jeff then left. He said that the deputy contacted him and said that he had given them a stern talking-to and a warning. Jeff also said that the grandfather contacted him also and said that he'd severely berated the boy's mother.

I was seeing red by this time but kept my anger out of my voice when I asked him why it hadn't been reported, shouldn't it be reported. Jeff assured me that the fear of God had been put into the parents and that if it happened again then DCFS would be called. If it happened again!!?!?!!?! The boy would be dead, either in the farm pond, kicked by a horse (not on his property) or splattered all over someone's car and the road. That would then be too late for him.

I thanked Jeff for the information and called back Mary at the Abuse hotline. She thanked me for reporting it and said that DCFS had been contacted.

Not five minutes later a case worker (not my friend) called to follow up. She took my story and said that she would be visiting the child's home within 24 hours and that any appropriate action would be taken. I hope so because that boy was neglected at the very least and more likely endangered in my opinion. Endangerment has a specific definition in Illinois law so I don't know if this falls within those parameters, but hopefully something will be done to protect that boy before . . .  splat.

Of course the case worker spoke to Jeff and Jeff knows that I'm the only one who knew about this besides him (I strongly doubt that a county deputy showed up - that was just a fabrication to cover his ass, in my opinion, and even if it's true, according to Jeff the deputy said he wasn't going to report it) so it'll be obvious that I'm the one who reported it.

El Paso is a small, tight-knit community and, even after 30 years living here, I'm still considered an outsider. I'm going to have to be sure that I follow every traffic rule and that my vehicle's lights are all in working order because I'm not sure that Jeff won't pull me over for something minor in retaliation because I embarrassed him by calling DCFS when he didn't - something he is mandated by law to do.

Am I paranoid? You bet!