Childproofing the house is a must, because it eliminates the potential dangers lurking inside your own household.
You may think that your house is safe, but you’d be surprised how even the most innocent things can be lethal for an inquiring and curious child.
Childproofing the house also ensures that your child remains inside the house, preventing them from venturing outside without your knowledge.
A couple found out about this the hard way when their toddler snuck out of their South Carolina home to drive around a battery-operated toy car.
According to a Yahoo! report, the toddler’s parents were fast asleep when he went outside the house. It was pitch black and he went out wearing only a pair of sweatpants and diapers.
He then hopped on the back of his toy BMW and began driving it around on the desolate streets.
The police said that the toddler was soon discovered by a passerby from a mile away, who had spotted the flickering tail lights from the vehicle.
“It seems he just slipped out during the night and started driving down the road,” Ken Bell, the public information officer for the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office, said. "If he would have gone any further he would have hit a main road.”
Officers arrived and took the boy to the station.
Officer Ken Bell said that the toddler didn’t seem frightened when they brough him to the station, only confused.
The police got in touch with the Department of Social Services, but the officers eventually tracked down the toddler’s parents after they spotted tire marks from the boy’s toy car near his home.
“The police asked them if they had a 2-year-old son and they said yes,” Officer Bell said. “Police asked him to check if he was in bed and he wasn’t. They were shocked.”
The Yahoo! report said that no charges were filed against the parents; the police determined that the circumstances happened out of mere accident, and there had been no wrongdoing on the parents’ part.
However, authorities did suggest putting chain locks on doors.
“We were fortunate it was happy ending,” said Bell. “So many things could have gone wrong."
READ: Toddler wanders out of home, falls into a pond, and drowns
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