A missing toddler drove himself down to the county fair on his toy tractor

[jpak]

https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/20/us/toddler-missing-john-deere-county-fair-trnd/index.html

Well, one determined Minnesota 2-year-old got himself all the way down to the county fair, according to the Chisago County Sheriff's Office.

<snip>

The young boy hopped on his battery-powered John Deere tractor toy and drove it down the sidewalk and to a back entrance of the festivities, according to CNN affiliate KMBC.

Sheriff's deputies found him next to the Tilt-a-Whirl, his favorite ride, the station reported.

"He was reunited with Dad," the sheriff's office said, "who promptly suspended his son's license by removing the battery from it."

<more>

[KentuckyWoman]

1. Toddlers are slippery

a former neighbor put her son down for a nap, stopped to the bathroom for 3 min tops before going to the kitchen. In the 3 min she was on the pot, that kid flipped out of the crib, nabbed a peanut butter sammich he'd hidden away, got out the front door. Within 5 min he was on the banks of the community retention pond watching the geese. Best part, Door was locked and Mom had no idea he had enough stretch to reach the knob yet...

Slippery devils.

[HipChick]

5. My baby brother was a escapist artist..

We could never figure out how he got out his crib, until I hid and watched him one day...I was 12yrs older than him, and my parents did not believe me until they saw it for themselves...

[malaise]

14. Too funny

I love adventurous kids

[Neema]

28. My brother and sister escaped out a window when they were supposed to be napping.

Neighbors found them trying to cross a busy street several blocks away. Brought them hope to my mother, who didn't even know they'd left.

[KentuckyWoman]

32. I did that to my mother

I was 2.. she put me down and took her own nap. We were in the same room. I managed to get through 3 locked doors and across the street to the neighbor's farm. The lady over there saw me out the kitchen window chasing the chickens... stark nekkid. Managed to scoop me up and take me home. My mother was still sleeping.

I don't remember it, but no one lets you forget something like that.

[Archae]

34. I was looking for a guy I liked when I was 3...

Got lost in a cornfield.

Later that day during the all-out search, I walked out of the cornfield, covered in dirt.

Now this is what my Mom told me, since I don't remember it at all.

[magicarpet]

2. Give the kid a Harley... with a full tank of gas.

This little tyke has journey and travel in his future.

[littlemissmartypants]

39. Hear, hear!!

[True Blue American]

3. That is one determined 2 year old!

Laughing because when I was 3 I decided to go to school. After frantic searching on the Farm I came down the road proclaiming,” I went to School!”

Never lived that one down, heard about it all my parents lives.

[malaise]

15. At three years old, a deceased friend followed his big sister to school

and sat down in the classroom in his diaper. Of course he was taken home but he was so enthusiastic that the principal and his parents decided to let him go to school (it was an all girls school to boot).
Turns out that he was a mathematics genius and by the time he finished high school in Jamaica, he applied to colleges and universities in the US. He was accepted by six Ivy League schools. He went to MIT.
He was also one of the most decent humans I ever met - warm, generous and unassuming. I will never forget him.

[HipChick]

19. Wow! Amazing story..

[Neema]

30. It sounds like his loss was a loss to the world.

I'm so sorry. I have a dear friend in Jamaica who has been on his own since he was barely a teen because his mother was murdered by a stalker. He's the sweetest, kindest, most loving person you'd ever want to meet. And brilliant too. Unfortunately he never got to finish school; because I know he could be doing amazing things. But he is a single dad of two girls and pours his heart and soul into them. If I was a millionaire I would pay for him to go back to school. I think he could do great things for the world.

[malaise]

31. How sad

[Karadeniz]

37. Wow! Thanks for the story!

[malaise]

51. One of his hobbies was the pyramids of Egypt

Understanding the mathematics and astrology associated with them - and he loved jazz and cricket. He had deep respect for female academics and did not tolerate sexist comments from fellow males.
His sister was eight years older than him and he told us that his early years and their wonderful relationship made him value women. He was a great husband and father.

[spooky3]

53. I'm so sorry you lost such a wonderful friend. Nt

[Blueplanet]

4. Battery-powered?

My first thought - Remove the battery!!
That's exactly what his father did.

[Phoenix61]

6. I used to work child protective services.

Absolutely amazing how resourceful two year olds are. One stacked furniture to get to a latch that had been installed at the very top of the door to prevent said adorable Houdini from getting out. Fortunantly, all ended well.

[Ms. Toad]

36. Yes - but some parents also encourage independence long before they are ready

One week a year I run child care for 0-3 year olds at "church camp" for the group I'm affiliated with. It moves around the country evey year, so every year it is brand new space for everyone - and even the adults spend the first two days figuring out how to maneuver the new space.

One year, we had parents of a two year old tell their child - on the second day - Mommy and daddy are going to go to breakfast tomorrow morning and then to our workshops. When you wake up, take yourself to your child care space.

The child actually made it there, and accurately reported his conversation with his parents the night before. At which point we got the coordinator of child care involved, since we were not about to step into that hornet's nest of questioning the parents' parenting - AND - the child cikd easily have been seriously injured.

On the other hand, we've had our share of Houdinis. One memorable year when we were given completely open space and had to blockade the entrance with furniture AND had a Houdini. I do a kid count about every 15 minutes, normally. I was doing it at least every 5 minutes there - and I can't tell you how many times I got up to one short and caught our little Houdini dasing around a corner.

[Cracklin Charlie]

7. My brother started and drove off in the family car when he was three.

I will never forget my parents running after that car, and my dad hanging out the window reaching for the key to turn it off.

[Blueplanet]

10. Thanks Cracklin Charlie

For the hardy laugh!

[malaise]

17. ROFL

[True Blue American]

20. Funny now, not so funny then.!

[Anon-C]

8. "Can't nobody tell me nothing!"

[elleng]

27. 'You're not the boss of me!'

(I'll attend HER 5 year old son's birthday party today!)

[ProudLib72]

9. Is this him?

[pangaia]

11. the "Tilt-a-Whirl"

OMG I threw up on the Tilt-a-Whirl at Palisades Amusement Park in NJ many moons ago.
Hot dogs.. yup I had been eating hot dogs. I remember well.

PS- I also remember the smell of piss in the underpass between the parking lot and Jones Beach, where I went as a kid.


Why is this???

[Chellee]

13. Odors are so evocative.

I can't smell Pine-Sol without flashing back to the galley at boot camp. We used it to mop the floors.

[littlemissmartypants]

22. The olfactory bulb has a direct connection to the brain.

I used to use scents to stimulate patients recovering from head injury. I used a daily regime of coffee extract for a month, to stimulate a woman who was in a semi vegetative state from a stroke, including other sensory motor techniques in conjunction with her regular medical plan. Nothing happened and I discharged her as a patient. A few days later her nurse came to my office to get me and take me to see her. I thought she had taken a turn for the worst and refused at first. Convinced by her and the nurse's aide I relented and found her awake, sitting up in the bed and she just kept repeating "I want a cup of coffee." Her daughter had shared with the treatment team that she kept a pot of coffee going all day every day, when she was well. It was such a strong sensory memory for her, knowing the strength of olfactory memory I gave it a try and it worked. After that I frequently used aromas in my therapeutic approach sometimes with remarkable results.

[pangaia]

24. great story

i also remember the scent of my first college girlfriend's perfume(back when 'girls' wore perfume.)

Of course my response to that memory is a bit different than to that of the tilt-a-whirl.

[littlemissmartypants]

26. Hahaha. I would hope so. nt

[Neema]

33. Gosh, maybe people should have a list of their favorite smells in their advanced directives

so that if they are ever in a vegetative state they can be reached. I like coffee (and love the smell of it) but I don't drink it regularly. But I think fresh baked, really yeasty bread would probably wake me from the dead.

Wonderful story!

[Laffy Kat]

56. My youngest son can sleep through a tornado, yet I can always get him up..

By frying bacon. Works every time.

[Karadeniz]

38. Fascinating! Thanks!

[SMC22307]

23. Ha ha, for me it was a chocolate-covered banana at a carnival in Maryland...

back in high school. Decades later, the thought of a chocolate-covered banana still makes me kinda... .

[pangaia]

25. LOL !!!!

[treestar]

57. The Tilt a Whirl is evil

because a person in it with you can make it even dizzier by pulling the bar to make it spin faster. That person is the AntiChrist.

[pangaia]

59. And if you throw up when you are at the top..... heh heh.. get it???

[Hotler]

12. I'm goin to town ma, don't wait up.

"Well she might've took my car keys, but she forgot about my old John Deere" From a Vince Gill song referencing George Jones.

[True Blue American]

21. Vince

[GoCubsGo]

16. I'm amazed that he knew how to get to the fairgrounds.

Must be a really small town? Definitely an observant little guy, on top of being really slippery.

[Ilsa]

18. Some kids are born with an incredible sense of where they are

in relation to other places, especially something they are motivated towards.

For example, my husband and I used to take our two year old to the mall to ride the merry-go-round. We always parked on the front side of the mall, usually entering through the same entrance. Once, we entered through the back of the mall through a store we never went through, a completely unfamiliar area. Our child tore away from his father and ran out of the store into the mall and turned exactly where he needed to in order to get to the carousel. He just knew which way to go, like he had a gps in his brain.

[yagotme]

35. Battery powered toy,

probably close enough to the fairgrounds to hear it. 3 year old ears, not 50+ like mine...

[sl8]

41. From a little over a block away, I'm thinking it would be hard to miss. n/t

[Volaris]

50. My little brother decided to walk to our grandmother's house in town...

At the age of five.
It's was almost six miles on farm country 'squares' roads

Mom found him about halfway there.
She didn't freak out because he 'took the dog with him' (so I guess that makes it A-OK).

dear lord, our childhoods were a wreck lol.

On a related note (I guess)...a question:

Should I be pissed that playground equipment no longer comes with skin-scalding steel and sharp edges?

[WhiskeyGrinder]

29. The amount of credulity the press, both national and local, is giving a throwaway Facebook post

from the cops is a little depressing.

[nolabear]

40. Oh come on. Haven't you read any of this thread?

[WhiskeyGrinder]

46. .

[sl8]

42. Yes, but I suspect they know their audience. n/t

[WhiskeyGrinder]

45. WELP.

[littlemissmartypants]

43. That's how desperate we are for actually happy ending distractions.

Or as the saying goes, it may have been a "slow news day" WhiskeyGrinder. I was under the impression this came from CNN. Hopefully, it's a true story. I, for one, am sick of lies.

Anything not coming from the White House is a breath of fresh air. Facebook is a cesspool and the similarities to the White House and it's occupants are evident.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

44. Sure, it came from CNN. But read the CNN article more carefully. It attributes all the information

to a Facebook post. No corroboration, no fact checking. If you're not a fan of Facebook, you shouldn't be a fan of this story.

[littlemissmartypants]

47. Chisago law enforcement posted it on their Facebook page.

Silly cops, don't they know Facebook isn't a news source. Fox also reported the tale, by the way.

We used to have a saying at DU about CNN, "too close to call."

Sorry to hear about your pending depression. I hope you are able to find a reason to smile eventually. Maybe stick to fiction, it tends to be more forgiving than the truth.

[cwydro]

48. I enjoyed it. Great story!

I was an early escapee too.

[littlemissmartypants]

49. Me too, cwydro. I think it's a delightful tale.

I too was a pre-school enrollee runaway. I ran away to the neighborhood school to go to kindergarten but got there only to find out there was no kindergarten. So I was tended to by a maintenance person who, so I am told, painted a board with chalkboard paint and got me some chalk, so I would have something to do until my grown-up found me. It apparently took a while and I eventually got to go to first grade. What's your escapee story?

[Princess Turandot]

54. Actually, in the 2nd para above, CNN referenced an affiliate: "according to CNN affiliate KMBC"...

That appears to have been their source, Facebook posts not withstanding. Per their article, KMBC got the story from WTHR-TV, an NBC affiliate in Indiana. They, in turn, reference KARE-11, an NBC affiliate in Minn-St. Paul, whose reporter spoke to a member of the Chisago County Sheriff's Office. (Chisago County is part of the greater Minn-St Paul-Bloomington Metro area.)

https://www.kmbc.com/article/authorities-missing-toddler-drove-to-county-fair-on-toy-john-deere-tractor/28451096 >>

https://www.wthr.com/article/toddler-gets-driving-privileges-revoked-after-riding-toy-tractor-county-fair >>

https://www.kare11.com/article/news/weird/toddler-drives-battery-powered-tractor-to-county-fair-without-asking-parents/89-f6b78855-2631-4e69-9fab-24db6ad510aa

A Chisago County toddler is without wheels after the stunt he pulled Thursday night. Sheriff's sergeant Jason Foster tells KARE 11 that the two-and-a-half year old decided to take his battery powered John Deere tractor to the county fair without asking his parents.

Dispatchers received a call about a missing child at 6:51 p.m., and had him safe with a deputy two or three minutes later in the middle of the fair grounds. Then, the scope of the little fella's big adventure became clear.

As it turns out the toddler lives only a block and a half or so from the fairgrounds, and had seen the rides going up over the previous few days while riding in his parents' car. When the fair opened Thursday night he was excited and decided to check things out by himself.

Sergeant Foster says the little guy drove his tractor down the sidewalk, through a back gate and then navigated a heavy crowd that was there for the motocross races, finally arriving at his chosen destination: The Tilt-a-Whirl.

[treestar]

58. It spurred similar stories on this thread

It is fun reading about people's accounts of what they did in childhood.

[Sucha NastyWoman]

52. At three years old my granddaughter disappeared from the park that her mother had taken her

And her brother to. Of course when her mother realize she was gone, she was went into a panic and called the police. My granddaughter had met a new friend at the park and decided she wanted to show the little girl her room and so headed home by themselves.

The police were at the house when they got there. All she wanted to know was whether he had a key so she could show her friend her room.

[Greybnk48]

55. This story made my day!

A lot of bad stuff floating around, and then this cute little story popped up! Thank you!

[malaise]

60. Ditto

I did laugh