4-Year-Old Boy Found Wandering Streets Of Harlem Alone
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- The mother of a 4-year-old boy that was found wandering the streets of Harlem alone Wednesday morning will not face charges after all.
The superintendent of a building located at 151st Street and Amsterdam Avenue noticed the boy by himself at around 8:45 a.m. and brought him into a bodega.
1010 WINS' Al Jones reports
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Neighbors told CBS 2's John Slattery that when they found the boy his mother was nowhere to be found.
"I ask 'Baby, where are your mother?' He say, 'I don't know.' After that man say maybe I give to police, maybe they can help," Ahmen Nave said.
Other neighbors tried to help. They gave the boy something to drink and tried to keep him calm.
"I give him some juice, I said 'relax, relax no problem,'" the bodega owner told 1010 WINS' Al Jones. "I ask this baby 'how old are you?' He said 3 or 4 years. After that, 'Where do you live?' He's not talking," the man said.
The boy's mother, Tory Grady, told CBS 2's Amy Dardashtian that she was shocked to wake up and find her son missing.
"I woke up and my child wasn't there, so I did what any parent would do, go straight to the police station," she said.
Neighbors said that Grady is a good mother who does her best to take care of her family.
"She's a working mother of two, working for the city, for the MTA. These are good families," Lisa Clinkscales said.
However, when Grady arrived at the station she was arrested and charged with endangering the welfare of a child. Community members then petitioned the 30th Precinct for her release, and Grady was freed just moments before her arraignment on Wednesday night.
The exit to Grady's building is blocked by two heavy, metal doors. Relatives said that somebody must have helped her son get out.
"Somebody was either coming in or going out and let my nephew go out by himself," said Tony Grady, the boy's uncle.
Tory Grady later said she was just happy to have her son back.
