3-Year-Old Boy Left Behind at Corn Maze, Family Only Realized Next Day

3-Year-Old Boy Left Behind at Corn Maze, Family Only Realized Next Day
Corn maze. (Mack Male/CC BY-SA 2.0)
Petr Svab
10/11/2017
Updated:
10/5/2018

A good samaritan found a 3-year-old boy apparently left alone at a corn maze in Utah.

The boy was visiting the maze in West Jordan on Monday, Oct. 9, with a large family group, but was left behind.

A woman found the child wandering around at the edge of the 8-acre maze. He was cold and frightened but unhurt.

Crazy Corn Maze in West Jordan, Utah. (Screenshot via Google Maps)
Crazy Corn Maze in West Jordan, Utah. (Screenshot via Google Maps)
“He couldn’t tell us his name, he could say he was three years old, [that] was about it,” Police Sgt. Joe Monson told Fox Carolina.
The corn maze staff got the boy a blanket. The owner, Kendall Schmidt, took a bullhorn and went into the maze, announcing a child had been found. A police officer took the boy to her car and played a movie for him, Fox 13 Salt Lake City reported.

It was getting late, yet nobody had turned up for the boy. Finally, an officer took him to the Child and Family Service, where the boy spent the night.

His mother called the police on Tuesday around 8 a.m. and then came to the police station to pick up the boy. “She said that she believes she might have left him at the corn maze,” Monson said.

Crazy Corn Maze in West Jordan, Utah. (Screenshot via Google Maps)
Crazy Corn Maze in West Jordan, Utah. (Screenshot via Google Maps)

Investigators followed the boy home, where he lives with multiple families and about 10 or more children, Monson said.

Police are investigating to determine whether to file any charges.

Schmidt wanted to thank the woman who found the boy and helped to care for him. “As a parent myself, I’d say ‘thank you.’ I think every parent would just be grateful for another adult to step in and mitigate that sort of situation,” he said.