A TODDLER was found walking barefoot on an Alicante province road last Friday.
The boy, aged 18 months, was spotted semi-dressed with a nappy on a street on the outskirts of Petrer at around 7.40am.
With rain falling and low temperatures, a man came to the rescue and gave the youngster shelter in his car.
The concerned motorist called the Petrer Policia Local who took custody of the boy who was visibly distressed.
He kept crying and called for his mother, with one of the officers able to get him to point to the building where his parents lived.
The mother told police that she had just driven her husband to work and that she left her child at home supposedly in the care of another person who had fallen asleep.
She said she did not know how the toddler could have opened the door with officers unable to find any trace of the baby-sitter.
An inspection of the property revealed that drugs had been consumed there and the state of the place was very messy.
Social services were called and they placed the baby under the interim care of his maternal grandmother while further inquiries took place into his parents and living conditions.
Petrer’s Policia Local paid tribute to the ‘admirable behaviour’ of the car driver who rescued the baby and underlined the importance of never leaving small children unsupervised.
