A 2-year-old boy was placed in foster care Sunday night after an Annapolis man found him running down the middle of a city street in his pajamas, police said.
Bob Lewis of the first block of Cypress Road told police he saw the boy near his home shortly before 10 p.m. Sunday, stopped him and stayed with him until officers arrived, authorities said. Mr. Lewis told police no one appeared to be looking for the toddler, and the child did not say who he was, where he lived or who his relatives were.
Mr. Lewis' wife, Helen, said she tried to calm the boy before police came, wrapping him in a red blanket to warm him up. She said the sound of his cries from the street was chilling.
"My husband and I were watching TV, and we had the door open, and we heard this screaming and crying from the street. And I said, 'What on earth could that be at this hour?' " Mrs. Lewis recounted. "He was calling for his mommy. It was frightening."
The little boy was wearing blue pajamas, but no coat, no shoes and no socks, and he had small cuts on his feet. "He said he was cold," Mrs. Lewis said.
Mrs. Lewis, who has four grandchildren, said the boy held up two fingers when she asked how old he was. She said she fed him cookies until police came.
The boy told police only that he lived in a house with a fence around it and a red car outside, Mrs. Lewis said. No one could understand what he was saying when he told them his name, she said.
The boy either lives nearby or was dropped off in the area, because the bottoms of his feet were not very dirty, said Officer Anthony Bove, who was called to investigate.
The child's parents or guardians could face negligence charges, he said.
As of late yesterday, Officer Bove said, police had not received any reports of a missing child and had no word on who his parents could be. The child was taken to Social Services and placed in foster care, he said.