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Parents thank mailman who found their toddler wandering Salem after escaping daycare
Mail carrier David Moulton told reporters that the 3-year-old was cold and shivering when he was found roaming the neighborhood alone last Friday.
The parents of a 3-year-old boy who escaped his Salem daycare last week have expressed their thanks to the mail carrier who found the child roaming nearby, reportedly calling the rescue their “Christmas miracle.”
The boy opened the door to Salem Community Child Care Inc. and wandered away from the Congress Street daycare just before 10:45 a.m. last Friday, Salem police previously said. A U.S. Postal Service employee called police about half an hour later after finding the child walking around the neighborhood alone, shoeless and wearing only a long-sleeved shirt and sweatpants, according to police.
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“They say God’s mysterious. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time,” mail carrier David Moulton told WBZ.
He told the news outlet that he scooped the boy up before he could run into traffic.
“He’s got no shoes and no jacket on. It’s like, this isn’t right. I’m wearing four layers of clothing, you know,” Moulton said, according to WBZ. “He was shaking. He was shivering; he was cold.”
Salem police said the department is investigating the incident, as are the Department of Children and Families and the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care.
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In a statement to Boston.com, Salem Community Child Care said it is “cooperating with the Department of Early Education and Care and the Department of Children & Families in their investigation of this incident. In consideration of the pending investigation and privacy of those involved, we will have no further comment at this time.”
Boston 25 News connected Moulton with the 3-year-old’s parents, who profusely thanked the mail carrier for his heroics.
“You literally just gave us our life back,” the boy’s mother, Martha Esquivel, reportedly said.
According to Boston 25, father Joel Espaillat added: “It was our Christmas miracle, man.”
Moulton replied that he was just doing what he thought was right, the news outlet reported.
The USPS worker told WHDH that last week was the first — and hopefully last — time he’s come across a missing child in eight years of delivering mail.
“I have children of my own,” he told WHDH. “I would hope somebody would come to their aid too if they needed help.”
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