A Masterton toddler who wandered out the gate with the family dog yesterday morning sparked a police search and brought her mother to tears when she was found safe over an hour later.
Demelza Wallace, 3, disappeared out the back door around 9.30am after her mother, Karla Tocker, had left it
open for their Jack Russell dog to get outside.
She was found at neighbours, not known to the family, safe and sound and enjoying a bit of breakfast just over an hour after she went missing.
"When they brought her back I just burst into tears. I'd really started to think the worst by that stage and my first thought was that someone had taken her."
Miss Tocker said she went inside for five minutes after letting the dog out, to give her 6-month-old a bottle when she realised Demelza had gone.
"I spent a half-an-hour searching the neighbourhood and asking if people had seen her before I decided to call the police."
Miss Tocker said Demelza is in the habit of wandering off when the gate is left open but never goes any further than the next-door school or immediate neighbours.
"She's told me before that she has hiding places at the neighbours and it's not unlike her to go for it when she sees the gate open but normally she stays fairly close to the house."
Masterton police were quick to arrive at the scene and began searching for her daughter who was still dressed in her pyjamas, she said.
"I explained to them if they found a dog then Demelza would be there too because they're inseparable and wherever one goes the other follows."
"Demelza had no idea what trouble she had caused and asked me why the police were here," she said.
"The neighbours that had her didn't seem too concerned that a 3-year-old had wandered into their house but we were. If I was them I would have called the police."
Miss Tocker said it shows how important it is to keep gates shut at all times and to not take an eye off children for even a few minutes.
Masterton police Senior Sergeant Warwick Burr said children go wandering from their home at times but police are not regularly called to search for missing children in Masterton.
"Unfortunately from time to time these things happen but she was found very quickly and everything worked out fine."
A Masterton toddler who wandered out the gate with the family dog yesterday morning sparked a police search and brought her mother to tears when she was found safe over an hour later.
Demelza Wallace, 3, disappeared out the back door around 9.30am after her mother, Karla Tocker, had left it
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