The Lost Child

My daughter has been working at a local clothing store since Spring. Last night I had to pick her up at 9:00 p.m. I was dozing in my chair and woke up a few minutes before 9 and quickly took off to pick her up.

When I get to the store I mildly panic as I see 4 police cars in front of the building and a police canine running around the building. I'm thinking someone tried to steal from the store and the dog is hot on the trail of the person who ran out the door. A few seconds later the cops all dash in their cars and take off down the turnpike with their lights on and I'm thinking, they got a call where the guy was headed.

Meanwhile, my daughter comes out of the store nonchalantly and rolls her eyes and says, "You won't believe what happened!"

I make her quickly tell me as I'm still thinking she was in harm's way.

It seems that a woman was shopping with her mother and 3-year-old daughter and misplaced her daughter. This happened about an hour before the store closed. Once she realized she couldn't find her kid she started screaming out her name and yelling that she lost her child and even went as far as to accuse an elderly couple for taking the child.

Staff searched the store and called the police and NO kid! An announcement came over the PA system to check under the clothing racks and eventually my daughter, another girl who works there and a random mom who was shopping found the little girl sleeping under this very low rack snuggled with her teddy bear and soccer ball. My daughter said she was the cutest little thing you ever did see and couldn't imagine how she could sleep through all the commotion.

The down side to the story is that when we were almost home the road was closed off and they were detouring all the cars as there was a bad accident and that is the reason why the cops took off with their lights on. I've been unable to find out details of the accident - it's a small town and everybody knows everybody. But I took that opportunity to instill in my kid to be a safe driver and please just call me if she's with kids and they shouldn't be driving. She gets her license at the end of the month.

She seemed to understand for the very first time how unimaginable it must have been for the mother who lost (temporarily) her child. I knew if I took that I could use it to impress upon her the whole driving thing.