Central Kentucky Bureau
NICHOLASVILLE — The grandmother of a 2-year-old found walking the streets unattended was arrested Tuesday and charged with wanton endangerment, police said.
Nancy Thomas, 66, of Nicholasville was lodged in the Jessamine County jail on a felony charge of second-degree wanton endangerment, punishable by one to five years in prison, police said. No bond had been set as of Tuesday afternoon.
Police were dispatched to the city’s southwest side, where they found a 2-year-old boy wearing a diaper and wandering in a backyard on Melissa Drive.
Police began a neighborhood search for the child’s guardian. Thomas was located at her home on Pinoak Drive. She told police that she was unaware that the child had left the house.
As usual the people never do know where the kids they are watching are at. Like when the children get left in the car. Until more punishable laws are set in motion, people will continue to do this. I certainly don’t think Grandma ever needs to watch this child or any child again.
WOW!!!!!!
That’s all I have to say…if this law is going to be enforced…then every child that disappears by some predator…we willl have to charge the parents with neglect…I mean…I do not know this grandmother…and maybe she is a bad parent…but this kind of standard is way too low.
It would prompt questions like where were you?…did you know where your baby was?…why did you not know?..this whole child services and cabinet for families is a joke. I’d like to investigate everybody who works for the cabinet and go digging into how they raise their children…this is a load of crap…and keeps the resources away from the really bad guys. Oh and especially the judges…those people are a bunch of creeps…:)
my mom is not a criminal, she put the kids down for a nap and cody the 2 year old got out, he is a wanderer, his grand mother loves them and would never put them in harms way… what they dont tell you is this little 2 year boy was picked up two weeks ago in the park at 5.00 in the morning and his dad had to go to jessimin county police station to get him becouse while his parents were sleeping he got out… are they in jail no, tell how this makes sence …. a week before that he got out and wonder the streets. they had to put dead bolts on the doors to keep him in, becouse when people are sleeping he unlocks the doors and gets out…
dont judge untill you know the facts, they always make people look so bad….
My 7 year old son has autism and, as part of it, he has very little impulse control. If he sees something he wants outside he will try to go after that. Because of this, we have locks and alarms on every exit point of the house. If he got up while we were sleeping and opened the door we would know it immediately. These are things that responsible parents and caregivers do to prevent harm from coming to children who cannot perceive danger and protect themselves. If what the previous commenter said about him getting away two weeks previously is correct, the officials in Jessamine County must have realized that this little boy is not being adequately supervised by the people who are supposed to be responsible for him. I would assume that they took the first incident as an accident and did not want the parents to get in trouble. Twice in two weeks shows a pattern of disregard and, as the grandmother is charged, wanton endangerment.
Hey wow…According to your statement it sounds like maybe the parents should have used the dead bolt locks they installed then the child would not have been wandering the streets at 5:00am. The question I wonder about the grandmother is how long had the child been wandering the streets before the police were called? If it is 10-15 minutes or longer this is a 2 yr old and if you know he likes to escape and wander around you put extra locks on doors up high to prevent this. Then you actually use the locks.
I am the grandmother of a rambunctious 2 year old. She recently pulled a chair up to the door, unlocked the chain and deadbolt and in a matter of less than 5 minutes was more than a block away from home, all this with 6 adults very much awake, aware and responsible in the house, in the dining room. She was found by us and was safe, thankfully we live in a very small and quiet rural neighborhood, without many streets. This can happen to anyone at any time, with no negligence or criminal intent of child endangerment. How many days ago was it that the child wandered away from the grandparents home and wasn’t found until the next morning sleeping next to a cow in a pasture and how many people were out all night searching for this child? Were those grandparents charged? This story is not detailed enough to warrant an opinion in regards to the fact of arresting/charging the grandmother with a crime. There are many factors involved here that may not be published in this article. However each incident is unique in its own right. Toddlers can move very quickly and are very unpredictable. All the circumstance of the childs welfare have to be taken into consideration. In regards to wearing only a diaper, it is not unusual for a toddler to be clad in only a diaper, what was the weather like, how soiled was the diaper, and by the way 2 year olds do tend to undress themselves at the most inopportune times. How many parents have dealt with a wayward, rambling toddler? Has this grandmother shown other cause that she would endanger her grandchild,? exactly how long was the child unaccounted for.?…. Criminal is the case in Florida with the 3 year old that was missing for how long before she was reported missing and the mother appears to be failing to cooperate with officials to find the child..that is a case of criminal intent in my book.