4-Year-Old Found Wandering Highway Said He Was ‘Going To Day Care’

An elementary school counselor rescued a 4-year-old boy she found wandering a major thoroughfare during the Tuesday morning rush hour. Yvonne DeLeon, of Dickinson, was driving east on FM 517 to K.E. Little Elementary, where she works as a counselor.

She approached Hill Avenue about 7:30 a.m. and saw a kindergarten-age, blond-haired boy walking on the side of the highway.

“Cars were slowing down, but no one stopped,” DeLeon said of the four-lane road that is divided by businesses between the east and west lanes.

DeLeon noticed no adult with the boy, who had blond hair, wore a school uniform and had a backpack.

DeLeon parked at Hill Avenue and called out to the boy across the highway, asking him if he was lost.

“When he saw me and heard my voice, he started to cross the street and cars were still coming,” DeLeon said. “I went ahead and stopped traffic. It was alarming for me. Cars were going really fast.”

As DeLeon waved at traffic, one woman slammed on her brakes.

“She was scared,” DeLeon said. “He was already in the street … I grabbed him. He was almost oblivious to traffic, which is very normal for children.”

DeLeon grabbed the boy’s arm in the outside lane of traffic and took him to the Dickinson police station.

“He would not let go of my hand,” DeLeon said. “I told him, ‘You are not in trouble.’ He said he wasn’t lost. He was going to day care.”

The boy was very calm. He apparently dressed himself. He wore tennis shoes, the right shoe on his left foot and the left shoe on his right foot.

DeLeon, who was a teacher before becoming a counselor, asked the boy his name.

“He had a speech impediment,” DeLeon said. “I had a book and a pen. He wrote his name for me.”

DeLeon consoled the boy, telling him it was her fault for not being able to hear him say his name.

Dickinson police Sgt. Michael Anzualda didn’t release the boy’s name, because he is a juvenile. Police believed the boy might have been 4 years old.

“A grandfather was taking care of two kids, and the 4-year-old says, ‘I don’t feel good,’ and that he’s not going to school,” Anzualda said. “The grandpa says, ‘OK. Go to sleep.’”

The grandfather took the boy’s older sibling to school and returned to find the boy gone, Anzualda said.

Police released the boy to his grandfather. No charges were filed, Anzualda said.