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Child Found Wandering In Street, Mom Expected To Be Charged

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GLASSPORT (KDKA) -- Police in Glassport arrested a mother Saturday night after a neighbor found her toddler walking alone in the middle of the street.

Darla Grayson spotted the boy on Euclid Avenue just after 5:30 Saturday night, but she had never seen the boy before and couldn't find his parents.

"I walked over and he was at the wall ready to step, he had a little lawnmower with him," Grayson said.

She said she first noticed how dirty the boy appeared and quickly took him to her house to clean him up.

"He was soaking wet with his diaper clear down to this knees," Grayson said.

glassport child found
(Photo Credit: Meghan Schiller/KDKA)

Grayson posted a photo of the boy on social media asking for help in locating his parents. She then took the boy to the police station.

At 8 p.m. Saturday, the boy's mother pulled into the police station's parking lot and appeared distraught.

She exited her car and ran to the entrance of the station, yelling that he was her son and she had only fallen asleep for 45 minutes.

Police told KDKA-TV News that no one had called 911 looking for the child during the nearly 3-hour time gap that the boy sat at the station under the care of officers. They were also concerned by the condition and cleanliness of the little boy believed to be just 2 years old.

Larraine Slate now faces felony charges. Our cameras were rolling as she exited the police station in handcuffs just before 10 p.m.

When asked what happened, she said she "hadn't slept in four days" because she "had a headache." She said she was a college student and she "didn't care what people said about her" because she's a good person.

Early that evening, Child Protective Services drove the little boy away and straight to the hospital. He's expected to be OK.

"You would imagine a parent would be looking for their child," Shawn Deverse, Assistant Chief of the Glassport Police Department, said.

When told that the boy's mother said "fell asleep," Grayson said she's not buying her excuse.

"You should be watching your children. You laid there to have them kids you should be watching them kids," Grayson said.

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