I noticed a little girl all alone on the street and went to find out where her parents had gone, but then I discovered something horrifying about her mother 😢😢
It was just another ordinary shift. Everything was as usual: a few parking tickets, a couple of minor traffic incidents — nothing out of the ordinary. I was already mentally counting the hours until the end of the day when I saw her.
A little girl. About five years old, no more. She was standing alone, right on the corner of a busy street. People passed by without even glancing — as if a child left alone was just an everyday occurrence now.
I approached her.
— Hi there. Why are you standing here alone?
She looked at me fearfully, but her voice was clear:
I noticed a little girl all alone on the street and went to find out where her parents had gone, but then I discovered something horrifying about her mother.
— Mom told me not to talk to strangers.
— I’m a police officer, I said, pointing to my uniform and handcuffs. See? You can trust me.
— Mom said to stay here and not move.
— And where did she go?
— I don’t know. She got in the car and drove away…
— Did she say where she was going?
— No… I only saw the car go that way, she pointed down the street toward the highway. It was red… I didn’t catch the plate number…
We waited for almost half an hour. I stood beside her, hoping a worried mother would appear, maybe she had gone into a store, maybe something had happened. But no one came.
— Let’s take you to the station. We’ll find your mom together, okay?
She nodded.
At the station, I pulled the footage from the street’s surveillance cameras, and honestly, I was horrified when I realized what had happened to the girl’s mother.
I noticed a little girl all alone on the street and went to find out where her parents had gone, but then I discovered something horrifying about her mother.
Later, at the station, came the part that makes any adult’s heart tighten. We began to figure out who she was, where she came from, what she remembered.
Teachers, psychologists, everything by protocol. But soon it became clear: the mother had abandoned the child. Not by accident. Not out of stupidity. Not in panic.
Consciously.
She didn’t hand the girl over to child services. She didn’t leave her in a hospital. She didn’t write a note. She just… drove away.
The red car and the street full of indifferent passersby — that’s all this little girl has left from her previous life.
I noticed a little girl all alone on the street and went to find out where her parents had gone, but then I discovered something horrifying about her mother.
Now she will live in a new family, one that we will find for her. And I… I still sometimes drive past that street and unconsciously scan the crowd. Maybe I’ll see that woman. Just to ask: how could she do it?