UTAH
Toddler left behind at Corn Maze; not reported til morning
Oct 10, 2017, 1:16 PM
WEST JORDAN, Utah — Police say a family did not notice they had left their 3 year old boy at a corn maze until the next morning.
West Jordan police Sgt Joe Monson says someone noticed a little boy alone in the maze, and he brought the boy to the attention of the Crazy Corn Maze staff Monday night.
“They had staff out with bull horns announcing they had a found child, they waited at the gate, but no one showed up for the child,” said Sgt Monson.
One of the owners, Kendall Schmidt, says they did everything they could, including going car to car. He says the boy was scared and crying and couldn’t tell them much except his age, and the name of his brother and the name of his cat.
“It was a stressful night for us, worrying about him and worrying about his family,” said Scmidt.
An officer who was there took the boy into her car to watch a movie, and that cheered him up, said Schmidt.
Sgt Monson says after closing time, they took the boy to the police station and then contacted Child and Family Services.
The next morning a woman called at about 7:45 AM saying she could not find her little boy and feared he was still at the corn maze.
Investigators went to the house and say several families live there together with several children between them, said Monson.
He said investigators and DCFS will work together with the family to see if it was an oversight or an accident or if charges are warranted.
“This could have been a whole lot worse,” said Monson. “We’ve been out on cases where we are looking for a missing child in cold weather.”
Scmidt says they have had people get lost or separated from each other in the maze in the past, but nothing like this.
“Kids have little legs of their own and little minds of their own, and it’s not hard to get separated. You have to constantly be watching and re-counting and making sure you have everyone,” said Schmidt.
