Police: Good Citizen Prevents Toddler From Wandering Off From Park

When a three-year-old started wandering off from Virginia Hylton Park Monday afternoon, a good citizen led the toddler back to safety, according to the Lexington Police Department. 

Officers were called to the park around 4:59 p.m., according to the police department. An investigation revealed that the child wandered away from the play area and tried to follow a man out of the park. 


When the man noticed the child following him, he took the child back into the park, according to police. The man saw a woman exiting the restroom and asked if she knew the child or the parents. The woman said yes and took the child back to his mother, who was still in the park. 

Lexington Police say that rumors that the incident was an attempted kidnapping are not true. 

"There was no attempted kidnapping of a child at the park," the Lexington Police Department posted on its Facebook page Tuesday. 

Police say video surveillance clearly shows the man taking the child back to the park, not away from it. 

Lexington Police Chief Terrence Green said he would like to thank the good citizen for averting what could have been a far worse situation had the child wandered farther away from the park.