A 3-year-old boy was found wandering alone through a 10-acre corn maze in northern Utah after his family left him behind, not realizing the small child was missing until the next morning, police say.
The distraught toddler was discovered by a good Samaritan on Monday night near the entrance of the Crazy Corn Maze in West Jordan, near Salt Lake City. "He was crying and upset and obviously scared," Kendall Schmidt, co-owner of the corn maze, said.
But Schmidt said maze workers and police were unable to locate the boy's family and "we couldn't get him to give us his name. He could say his brother's name and his cat's name, but not his own name."
He was handed over to the Utah Division of Child and Family Services for the night. Then Tuesday, his mother noticed he was missing, police said.
Schmidt, 42, said it is not unusual for family members to get lost or separated in the maze, so when someone first found the toddler, "we weren't in panic mode right away." They waited about 30 minutes for the family to come looking for him. Security personnel started to search and Schmidt went through the maze with a bullhorn, calling out for anyone who might be missing a child. "It became evident that they were not in the maze," he said.
West Jordan Police Sgt. Joe Monson said authorities received a call from the mother about 7:45 a.m. Tuesday, worried she had left her son in the maze overnight. Monson said he did not know much about the boy's family or how they were able to forget about him but he added that they live in a home with multiple families and a group of them had gone to the maze together Monday night.
Washington post
