CAPE CORAL, Fla. — Eyewitness video shows an 18-month-old child wandering the streets of Cape Coral alone, just moments before police arrived.
The Cape Coral police report says on June 3, officers found the 1 1/2-year-old at the corner, of NE 20th Avenue and NE 24th Terrace accompanied only by a dog, in the pouring rain with a soiled diaper.
An eyewitness said the child’s home, is a quarter of a mile down the street from the intersection where police found the toddler.
The mother, Mary Wright, was charged with child neglect.
A video from one eyewitness shows the moments when Wright's one-year-old child, who is shown wearing nothing but a diaper, was seen walking, barefoot, alone with only the family dog in the rain.
The Cape Coral police report said this isn't the first time the child’s mother has been reported for similar instances.
In the report, one neighbor said the child has been seen wandering alone over seven times in the past two months.
It's the reason the eyewitness ssaid the video was taken.
Other neighbors said they are worried about the child's safety, pointing out that several canals surround the home.
We tried approaching the family outside of their home on NE 20th Ave., but they declined to speak with us.
On Tuesday, similar conditions described in the police report were seen outside of the home, including trash cans overflowing with garbage and boarded-up window police say was uncovered when they arrived on June 3.
Officers said Wright told them she asked her children, who are between ages 6 and 15, to watch the toddler.
According to the report, Wright told officers, that the Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) had advised her to get chimes for windows and doors, but she had not.
We have reached out to DCF to ask them to clarify their suggestion and if they could provide the context of what this latest charge means for the mother and her child.
At the time of this publication, DCF has said they are processing the request.
