A two-year-old child who wandered out of his home in Limerick during the night while his parents slept was found a kilometre away.
The boy, who will turn three this summer, opened the front door of his home in Garryowen and walked a kilometre along the Dublin Road at about 2.20am yesterday.
Alerted gardaí
A 21-year-old man found the boy wandering along the road and alerted gardaí. Gardaí at Henry Street station took the child into protective custody while they tried to ascertain where his family lived.
According to gardaí, a door left open at the boy’s house led them to his home where his parents were completely unaware the toddler had left.
Gardaí woke the parents, who were shocked to discover the boy had climbed out of his cot before letting himself out the front door.
He was reunited with his parents at about 4am.
Gardaí said he had suffered no ill-effects. "He was absolutely fine, thankfully, nothing untoward happened, and his mother was delighted and relieved to be reunited with him," a Garda spokesman said.
Praised the man
He praised the man who alerted gardaí and searched in a number of estates near to where he had found the child.
“That little boy is incredibly lucky. It’s amazing he managed to get out of the house like that, and it’s even more fortunate he wasn’t knocked down by a car or something,” a neighbour said.