Ring doorbell alerts woman to 2-year-old wandering alone in Middletown

A mother is facing child endangerment charges after Middletown police say her two-year-old was found wandering around alone.
Published: May. 25, 2023 at 5:26 PM EDT
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MIDDLETOWN, Ohio (WXIX) - A mother is facing child endangerment charges after Middletown police say her two-year-old was found wandering around alone.

The child was found around 5 a.m. on 17th Avenue when Leah Baxter’s Ring Doorbell alerted her to someone on her porch.

“My Ring camera goes off,” recalls Baxter. “For some reason, something told me to go look at it, and normally, I feel like it’s just a cat or car going by. But it was a little boy.”

The Ring Doorbell video shows the little boy walking toward Baxter’s door.

He never rings the doorbell but takes a look into the window and then begins walking away and almost falls down the stairs.

Baxter says she ran outside to get the two-year-old, who had nothing on but a pull-up diaper, and then called 911.

She says seeing a child walking around all alone like that broke her heart.

“My heart started pounding,” Baxter explained. “I was so nervous, like, ‘Oh my god, did they leave him or abandon him, or how did he get out?’ I’m just like, ‘he’s a whole baby.’”

Middletown police came and picked up the child.

While police say the boy’s mother was arrested, her identity has not been released.

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