A woman called police after finding a child sleeping in front of a kindergarten entrance at 05:20 a.m. Sunday (0420 UTC/GMT) in Unna, on the outskirts of the western German city of Dortmund.
Authorities who arrived to collect the child discovered that the four-year-old girl had left her parents’ home on her own initiative, with the goal of being the first to arrive at her kindergarten.
girl slept outside in the cold
After learning that the kindergarten was closed, the girl slept in front of its entrance.
That night the weather in Unna area was six degrees centigrade with rain. It was also one of the longest nights of the year.
According to a statement on the Unna Police Facebook page, the parents were then woken up by officers who brought their daughter back home.
According to police, the parents – who were “baffled” by the officers’ visit – had not noticed their child going missing.
Users responding to local broadcaster WDR’s Facebook post about the story said they remembered similar experiences as children.
“This looks familiar to me,” one user said.
Another commented, “I remember going to school alone at 06:00 in the morning as a child. Then my father came to me to bring the bag which I had forgotten to take with me.”
Everyone seemed to agree with one comment: “Thankfully everything went well. Still, so cute!”
ftm/kb (dpa, open source)
