Kids do the Darndest Things!

Ben and I were told about this article by a friend and had to see it for ourselves. Although amusing, we found it to be completely frightening.

Considering I live in Denton, I know exactly where this place is, and drive by the Imagination Station several times a week. Here's how I find it to be all kinds of wrong:
a. the kid ended up at Hooters (where he was eventually picked up by authorities)
b. he crossed a major road that is a main entrance to highway 35
c. he potentially encountered many a less than "friendly" stranger
d. his day care did not pay enough attention to the fact that he was obviously NOT in the bathroom, and had left the center for quite some time, nor did any one except for the "hooters staff" notice him on his hike!

Unbelievable! Check it out for yourself!


Five-Year-Old Boy Leaves Daycare; Goes To Hooters
posted 4:20 pm Fri July 25, 2008 - Denton, TX

The five-year-old boy walked out of the Imagination Station day care near 35E Northbound, crossed Dallas Drive and went to the Race Track gas station to buy a soft drink and snacks. He then ended up in the Hooters parking lot a half a mile away.

"I was pretty impressed that he made it that way without getting hurt," says Hooters General Manager Brian Mason. Mason and his workers spotted the child before 5 p.m. Tuesday afternoon. "He let us know that he looked both ways before crossing the road," Mason says. "He stopped in the middle and looked both ways."

Mason says the boy was not afraid, but called police anyway. "We kept him in the back, coloring, and kept him preoccupied until the police showed up." The day care's owner Debra Pugh did not want to be interviewed on camera, but says the boy asked to go to the bathroom about ten minutes before five. When his father arrived minutes later to pick him up, workers realized the child was missing. They believe he got out through a fire exit that by law has to stay unlocked. Investigators are looking into the incident.

"We are looking into the timeline," says Officer Jim Bryan. "But I think the greater concern is the distance that this child went in the time frame that he was at the day care." Imagination Station is a plan one center, which means inspections are conducted every three to five months. Regardless of what plan they are on or how often they are to be inspected, parents we spoke with stand by their day care. "She's a caring woman and I like her. She really takes her children like her own children. She really cares for them."