Toddler wandered away from daycare and ‘almost got hit,’ Laval woman says

Cleopatra Pitsakis says she was driving in Laval on Tuesday afternoon when she saw an unattended toddler dart across Ste-Rose Blvd.

“I panicked right away,” Pitsakis said. “She almost got hit.”

Pitsakis, a hairstylist living in Laval, said she followed the toddler from a distance in her car. When she confirmed the toddler was alone, she approached her to ask if she was OK.

“She goes, ‘I’m walking home from daycare,'” Pitsakis said.

It was around 1:25 p.m., she said.

After the girl accepted her offer to help, Pitsakis said she parked the car, took the girl’s hand and walked her back to her daycare.

When the pair arrived at the girl’s daycare, Garderie Éducative Fabreville, Pitsakis said staff hadn’t realized that the toddler was gone.

The educator who answered the door “was in shock,” Pitsakis said.

Several bewildered members of staff questioned her about the event, she said. Still shaken from the encounter, “I collapsed in tears,” Pitsakis said.

The daycare declined The Gazette’s request for comment.

Given that Pitsakis said she and the toddler spent time talking and then took around eight minutes to walk back to the daycare, she said she figures the girl was gone for around 25 minutes without daycare workers noticing.

The girl “had time to get dressed” into her raincoat before leaving, Pitsakis added.

Pitsakis said she reported the incident to police and met with officers later that night. Laval police confirmed to The Gazette that the call and meeting took place, but declined to provide further information.

Police officers told Pitsakis that they would visit the daycare later this week, she said, but also suggested there was little else they could do to follow up on the incident.

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