Monday, November 16, 2009

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Two children found wandering away from daycare

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DOUGLAS, Mass. -- Two young girls disappeared Friday from a Douglas daycare and were found wandering in a man's yard nearly a half-mile away.

The two girls, ages three and four, were playing on the playground outside of the daycare during a recess and wandered off shortly after noon when their teachers were calling them to line up and come inside.

They ended up wandering about a half-mile away to Franklin Street. A man on Franklin Street saw the girls walking around unattended and called police.

The man who found the girls called 9-1-1 in disbelief.

"I tried to ask them where they were coming from, ask how did you get here, and the only response they kept giving was, 'well we lifted the gate to get out,'" said Dennis Bombara, the man who found the children.

Police say the girls wandered away from the Whitin Community Center Childcare, ironically located in the same building as the Douglas Police Department.

Police started searching when an aide from the daycare called for help.

"They did an immediate quick search, thinking they got misplaced, but the distance between here and Bombara's house is about a quarter-mile across, so you know they had a good head start," said Douglas police chief Patrick Foley.

Police say the children were on the playground when they somehow slipped out of a fence and likely wandered through a wooded area.

Bombara says the girls told him they ran away from school.

"Two little kids that age that got this far, who knows where they would have gone. Route 16 is an extremely busy road right here, and from this section up there are no sidewalks, so I don't even want to anticipate what might have happened," said Bombara.

The daycare has no comment but says that they did follow all rules and regulations.

The state is investigating the incident, including the Department of Children and Families.

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