A father who didn’t notice he had left one of his 14 children behind in a corn maze until the next day said it happened because there are so many to keep track of.
Father-of-14 Robert, took 11 of his brood along with his wife to a corn maze in Salt Lake City, West Jordan on a happy family day out.
The day seemingly went without a hitch until the following morning when Robert’s wife noticed their three-year-old son was missing.
The father of a child who got lost in a corn maze in Utah and wasn’t found until the next day said it happened because he’s a polygamist with 14 kids – and that’s a lot to keep track of
Luckily, the young boy had been found and handed over to child services who cared for him for the night.
Robert explained he has a plural family, meaning he has more than one family but says that has nothing to do with why his son was mistakenly left behind.
Adding that his sister bringing two or three of her own similar looking blond boys added to the confusion.
Robert said, there were ‘about four blond-haired boys about the same height.’
While the three-year-old went walkabouts, Robert’s wife and sister-in-law took the remaining children to the house in West Jordan.
The parents ventured into the Crazy Corn Maze in West Jordan, Utah with their child on Monday night and did not realized the kid was missing until the next morning
They watched a movie together and some of the kids fell asleep. Then his sister-in-law left with her children.
Robert said on Thursday: ‘I’m mostly relieved – it’s nice that there were people there that were able to help. The first outcome that we want is for him to be OK and safe.’
Adding: ‘It was an oversight and we learnt a lot from it.’
Police Sgt. Joe Monson said Tuesday the child was apparently left behind while visiting the Crazy Corn Maze with a large family group.
‘Sounds like this is a dwelling with multiple families and a lot of children living in the same home,’ he said.
He says the boy was cold and frightened but unhurt when someone else found him at the maze Monday evening.
Staffers called on a bullhorn and even walked through the maze searching for his family but couldn’t find anyone.
After closing, the officer turned the child over to the Department of Child and Family Services.
The boy was found by a good Samaritan who took him to the maze staff. They tried to locate his parents but they were not at the maze
The parents did not call police until Tuesday morning and told them the child might still be in the corn maze
His mother ended up calling police on Tuesday morning.
Monson says she later arrived at the police station with about 10 children.
Monson says it wasn’t immediately clear how the child’s disappearance went undetected, but police are investigating whether any criminal charges are warranted.
‘The fact that it took so long for them to realize the child was missing – was it purely an accident? What where the circumstances? These are all questions investigators want to ask.’
‘What’s odd to me is they didn’t notice when they got home, or noticed by bedtime, or noticed in the night,’ Schmidt said to KUTV.
No citations or charges have been filed as of yet, but the case is still being investigated