Toddler Abandoned In Restaurant Was Calm And Mingled With Customers
AURORA, Colo. (CBS4) - Aurora police are trying to find out why parents left a 2-year-old girl alone at a restaurant for nine hours.
The family left the girl at the Los Toritos Restaurant on East Colfax Avenue Sunday afternoon. Officers found her parents around 10 p.m.
The little girl was sitting at a table with about nine family members. When her family left, she stayed. A waitress sat a new group of customers and they told the restaurant that the child wasn't theirs.
Police took photos of the girl and used social media to get the public's help tracking down her parents.
"They ate, and when they left there was a kid left in the restaurant," Los Toritos Restaurant owner Ramona Castro said through a translator.
Castro and customers waited 45 minutes before calling the police, hoping the little girl's family or guardians would come back. They never did.
"I can't believe that someone would abandon a child. They should have been paying attention," Castro said.
Castro isn't sure if the group of people with the child were family, or if her parents were among those people. Police aren't confirming those detail either, just that the parents have been located and were interviewed.
The girl came in with a total of four children and five adults.
"I don't understand because I have daughters and I can't leave them alone, not even two minutes. It's hard to think about," Castro said.
Castro says the little girl was very calm throughout the experience and wasn't upset. In fact, she was described as trusting and even mingled with customers while she was there.
Police say the whole thing is a mix up and that they will not be filing charges.
