Pic Of Baby Crawling Across Busy Street Sparks Social Media Outrage

Photo by Anacleto Rapping/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

Guardians Claim It Was An Accident

One New Jersey home is up for question after a baby living there made their way outside to a busy street.

According to the Asbury Park Press, a 10-month-old boy managed to leave his house and crawl across Joe Parker Road in Lakewood. A motorist, Cory M. Cannon, came across the baby on the busy street and took a picture before taking it out of harms way.

“I thought it was a toy or something until (the baby) moved,” he wrote in a message to the Asbury Park Press. “I knew I needed to get some sort of proof and my GPS was open on my phone, so I used my work vehicle to slow down traffic behind me and took the pic as I was exiting the vehicle and halting oncoming cars.”

The speed limit for the road was 40 mph.

Cannon called the Lakewood police after securing the baby and gave them his location. Before they arrived, a neighbor came out to the street and Cannon said he followed the neighbor back to the baby’s house. He said a young child answered the door and eventually the baby was returned to their guardians.

After some police investigation, no arrests were made. Lakewood Police Capt. Gregory Staffordsmith said the baby might have left through a door that was left open by an older sibling. The family didn’t know the infant was missing until the neighbor returned him. “It was an accident,” one woman at the home where the baby lived said.

Neighbors of the baby’s family said the kid’s parents are amazing people who made a mistake. However, it was too late for social media. Cannon posted his pic of the baby crossing the street on Facebook and it went viral with over 2,000 shares.

“It’s devastating what people are saying on social media,” one neighbor said, saying that the family is always playing with their children in the park. “I’m personally destroyed by this because I know the family.”

Child welfare workers have been in contact with the baby’s family as authorities continue their investigation.