A three-year-old boy walked himself home along a busy road after nursery – and staff there hadn’t even noticed he’d left.
Sarra Reid opened the door to her house to see her toddler standing there before he burst into tears.
Little Liam Radcliffe had walked the half mile distance between the Barassie early years nursery in Ayrshire, Scotland, and his home, navigating the busy street alone.
Sarra Reid was horrified to realise her three-year-old son Liam Radcliffe had walked home alone after escaping from his nursery in Ayrshire, Scotland
After finding him she returned to the nursery, thinking staff there would be in a panic rushing to find him, only to realise they had no idea he had been missing.
Ms Reid told the Daily Record: ‘It is about half-a-mile, or a 10-minute walk. It is a really busy road.
‘There are buses, lorries and I don’t really want to think what could have happened.
He walked the half mile distance between the Barassie early years nursery in Ayrshire, Scotland, and his home, navigating the busy street alone
‘He only had a pair of joggies and a T-shirt on. There was no teacher with him and he told me he wanted to come home.’
Liam was missing for at least 20 minutes and nobody at the nursery had noticed when they arrived back there.
Mrs Reid added: ‘I put him in the car and drove back to nursery. We were buzzed back in and the teachers just looked perplexed as to how we were walking in together.
‘I had expected to see a search going on for him. But when I walked in with him, the staff just looked perplexed. It was then that it dawned on me that they did not know he was missing. I was absolutely horrified.’
He walked for ten minutes along busy roads before reaching his home on North Shore Road and bursting into tears. It is believed he escaped through two doors and an unlocked gate
Staff believe Liam walked through two sets of doors and an unlocked gate to leave the nursery.
After a meeting with nursery chiefs, the main door will be alarmed and the gate padlocked, and there will be an extra member of staff.
Douglas Hutchison, South Ayrshire Council’s director of educational services, said: ‘We take our children’s safety very seriously and the new way of working will help ensure that such an incident doesn’t happen again.’
Ms Reid returned him to at Barassie early years nursery. She said: ‘I had expected to see a search going on for him. But when I walked in with him, the staff just looked perplexed. It was then that it dawned on me that they did not know he was missing. I was absolutely horrified’