FLAGLER COUNTY, Fla. — Flagler County deputies are crediting an alert tourist for saving a local two-year-old boy from danger.
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Deputies responded to reports of an unattended, wandering child in a roadway near the condominiums at 54 Club House Drive in Palm Coast Monday morning.
According to the sheriff’s office, a visitor who was on vacation found the toddler at the entrance to the parking lot along Club House Drive. Deputies say the child wasn’t injured but was only wearing blue onesie pajamas and had an extremely soiled diaper.
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Deputies say the visitor stayed with the child, hoping to find a parent nearby, but decided to call the sheriff’s office for help just after 9 a.m.
Responding deputies took the child back to their district office in Palm Coast and noticed the Department of Children and Families to respond as other deputies searched the complex for cars with baby seats or anyone who may have been searching for a lost child.
Deputies say they eventually found a condo unit with its front door open and woke up the sole occupant, identified as 22-year-old Isabella Tucci.
According to the sheriff’s office, Tucci admitted to being the lost boy’s mother and said she last saw her son at 2 a.m. when she put him down to sleep in his bedroom and hadn’t checked on him since then.
Deputies say Tucci told them she was asleep until they woke her up at approximately 10:30 a.m.
When asked about the last time the boy was fed, deputies say Tucci pointed to an open box of cereal on the kitchen floor and said it was possible he had eaten it, but she was unsure because she was asleep.
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Tucci also noted that the boy could unlock and open doors and that is had been an “ongoing issue.”
Deputies noted that the condo unit was located on the second floor of the building and had a stairway, which posed an elevated fall hazard. They also noted a nearby canal, which is a water hazard just behind the building.
According to the sheriff’s office, the entrance to the condos where the child was found is also located along Club House Drive, which is a heavy-traffic thoroughfare between Palm Harbor Parkway and Palm Coast Parkway.
Deputies say they also saw open containers of alcohol in Tucci’s home, which was also cluttered with trash and food on the floors.
According to the sheriff’s office, deputies also checked the boy’s room and noticed there was no clothing for him.
While speaking to a DCF investigator, Tucci admitted to recently testing positive for THC. When given a drug test on-site, Tucci tested positive for Methadone.
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At that point, DCF took custody of the child and has since started working on a Safe parenting Plan for him.
Tucci was booked into the Flagler County jail on a charge of neglect of a child without great bodily harm. She has since been released on $2,500 bond.
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