2-Year-Old Found Wandering In Motel Parking Lot He Tells Police Mom Abandoned Him; Mother Says She Left Boy In Car

A 2-year-old boy was found wandering in a motel parking lot early Friday, police say.

The boy told the people who found him that his mother had left him, said Coeur d’Alene Police Capt. Carl Bergh.

Employees at the Comfort Inn, 280 W. Appleway, found the boy in the parking lot at about 6 a.m., hotel workers said.

The boy told them his name and then told him his mother had driven off, Bergh said.

Bergh said the people looked around the motel and were not able to find the boy’s mother. They then called police.

The boy, who will turn 3 in two weeks, was placed in a foster home Friday.

Bergh said the boy’s 33-year-old mother called the police department about 10:15 a.m.

She told police that she, the 2-year-old and her 13-year-old son went to the motel to visit some friends about 2 a.m.

She said the youngest boy was asleep in her car and she left the older boy there to watch him. The family then left the motel at 4 a.m. but returned at 6:30 a.m., she told police.

Again, the woman said she left the youngest boy in the car with the older boy there to watch him, Bergh said.

She said the teenager was upset at having to watch the toddler and that she returned to the car at 7 a.m. to find her youngest son missing.

But, “her statement is not consistent with what other potential witnesses have said,” Bergh said.

He noted the boy was found in the parking lot at 6 a.m. and the woman told police she didn’t return there until 6:30 a.m.

The woman told police she searched the area for her son from 7 to 10 a.m. until she called police at 10:15 from the hotel manager’s office.

Police have not arrested the woman.

“The child’s welfare is our primary concern,” Bergh said.