SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WGGB/WSHM) – Police are investigating after a young child was found outside his daycare in the East Forest Park neighborhood.

Around 9 a.m. Thursday, a woman named Donna Fellion was driving on Whittum Avenue in the East Forest Park neighborhood when she said she spotted a toddler sitting in the middle of the street.

She told us it happened right after she finished her shift as a school crossing guard.

Springfield police say the little boy crawled under a makeshift door in the courtyard of a home daycare and reached the driveway, but they are still investigating whether the baby made it out onto the street.

Fortunately, this child was not injured and Fellion immediately called 911. She told us that she had lived in Springfield her whole life and had been a crossing guard for 24 years, and had never seen nothing like it.

Fellion thanked those who checked on the situation before officers arrived.

“The woman behind me had the same reaction as me,” she said. “She had seen how distraught I was, and I thank her if she’s watching because she stayed with me the whole time until she went to work, and then there was a landscaper behind her who said ‘ladies, how are you?’ we said ‘clearly not’.

She told us it was personal for her, as she is a grandmother of two young grandchildren. She also remembers the interesting interaction she had with a caregiver at the daycare after she picked the baby up from the floor and waited for officers to arrive.

“The woman came at me as if I had done something wrong. She pulled the baby from my lap and that’s when the baby started crying because he was comfortable with me. So he must have known that I was his refuge.

Springfield Police Department spokesman Ryan Walsh said detectives are looking into everything to figure out what happened here.

“It’s not clear how quickly this happened. That’s something they’re looking at. How long has this toddler been absent from daycare? If it were a matter of seconds rather than minutes, it could be huge.

He also said that situations like this are nothing new and that he is grateful that Fellion took action when she did.

“Luckily she is not on the phone, she is aware of her surroundings and stopped and did the right thing by calling the police so the relevant authorities can investigate now.”

Walsh also told us that this child’s parents were immediately notified.

We also have a statement from the daycare, which says:

“These allegations about what happened today are false and fabricated. We have a teacher and a parent of one of the children who saw what really happened, and we look forward to cooperating with this investigation.

The Ministry of Children and Families and Early Childhood Education have been contacted regarding this situation.

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