The incident occurred on Tuesday (September 13 this year) at approximately 3:30 p.m. The duty officer at the Jawor police unit received information that a small child had been found in one of the supermarkets in Jawor. The boy, who was walking with a shopping cart filled with sweets and toys, was noticed by a store security guard.
The man was concerned that the child was walking alone, without an adult’s supervision, and immediately informed the duty officer. A police patrol arrived at the scene a moment later. The officers knew which kindergarten the boy had left, because the concerned caregivers and the child’s father, who had come to pick up his son from the facility and had not found him there, had already notified the police.
The officers’ findings showed that the child had managed to get several hundred metres away from the kindergarten. The four-year-old told the police officers that he could not wait for his father, got dressed in the cloakroom and, unnoticed by the caregivers, left the kindergarten to go shopping because his birthday was the following day. The boy therefore decided to buy sweets, toys and the necessary birthday accessories himself.
Jawor police officers are now determining how the situation occurred in which the child left the kindergarten alone and no one reacted.
Proceedings are being conducted in this case under Article 160(2) of the Penal Code, concerning exposing a child to the risk of loss of health or life. This offence is punishable by imprisonment from 3 months to 5 years.