A British mother has been warned she faces prosecution because she took 14 hours to go to police when her three-year-old son went missing.
When the 34-year-old woman came searching for her child, a fast food worker told her that officers had rescued her son after he was spotted walking barefoot in pyjamas along a Costa Blanca seafront.
But she allegedly took 12 hours to call police in the holiday resort of Torrevieja – and another two hours to go and pick him up when officers confirmed they had him.
They had urged her to come in immediately as they were about to take him to an emergency care home.
The mother allegedly took 12 hours to call police in the holiday resort of Torrevieja (shown in a stock image above) – and another two hours to go and pick him up when officers confirmed they had him
The extraordinary sequence of events has now ended up with the unnamed woman being reported for an alleged crime of child abandonment and becoming the subject of an ongoing court probe, local paper Diario de Informacion said.
The bizarre incident began at 8.30pm on Wednesday night when the fast food worker who later alerted the mother called police to say a young boy was wandering alone along Torrevieja’s promenade wearing just pyjamas and socks.
Police took him away after failing to identify him and confirming no missing alert was out for him – and confirmed he was okay with a hospital check-up while they tried to establish who his parents were.
Local reports said the same worker who had alerted local police spotted a woman ‘looking for something’ along seafront promenade Paseo Juan Aparacio around 9.30pm the same night – and told her the child was with authorities after confirming she was searching for her son.
Police only got their first call from her at 8.30am yesterday and she took another two hours to turn up to collect her son after being urged to come in immediately because he was about to be placed in temporary care, Diario de Informacion said.
She is said to have told officers when she finally went in that she had failed to arrive earlier because she knew her child was in safe hands with the police after losing sight of him while she was out with a group of friends.
She escaped arrest but has been reported to court officials by the Civil Guard who have taken on the police side of the investigation into the alleged case of child abandonment.
The promenade where the youngster was found is in the heart of Torrevieja town.
It is near the spot where an off-duty police officer arrested a man suspected of trying to abduct a two-year-old girl last September.
Police took him away after failing to identify him and confirming no missing alert was out for him – and confirmed he was okay with a hospital check-up while they tried to establish who his parents were
Local reports at the time said the Spaniard, described as well-built and around 60, ran off with the girl in his arms before dumping her as he was intercepted by holidaymakers waiting near a tourism office alerted by the youngster’s screaming relatives.
He was pinned to the ground by the off-duty police officer – and handed over to Civil Guard officers for questioning.
In July 2016 police in Benidorm further up the coast arrested a British holidaymaker accused of abandoning her two nine-year-old twins while out drinking.
One of the boys was taken into a police station by a couple who found him walking alone on the streets of the Costa Blanca resort looking for his AWOL mother.
His twin brother was discovered lying in the door-well of his holiday apartment after crossing town to return to where they were staying.
Police arrested their mother after failing to find any search of her in the area where her children had last seen her – and tracking her down the following morning asleep in bed at her holiday accommodation.
The Civil Guard said early this morning they weren’t able to make any immediate comment. No-one from the courts was available for comment.