5-Year-Old 'Runaway' Reportedly Crosses 4 Lanes of Traffic as Dad Slept

A West Des Moines man was charged with child endangerment after his 5-year-old son was missing for about an hour before he reported it to authorities, police said.

During the 50 minutes the 5-year-old was reportedly missing, adults at the Kum & Go store at 7265 Vista Drive fed the 5-year-old cereal and milk after he reportedly ran across four lanes of traffic on Vista Drive about 8:30 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 3.

After West Des Moines police arrived at the convenience store, Officer Jason Hatcher interviewed a witness who said the boy – who was reportedly barefooted and wearing only a shirt and shorts – darted across the busy street without looking for oncoming vehicles.

The witness told Hatcher he tried to talk to the boy to learn his name and where he lived, but the child was scared and refused to talk. So the witness left the boy at the store with other adults and drove around to scour the neighborhood for his parents, who police later learned lived about 1.5 miles away in the 6400 block of Vista Drive.

The witness didn’t have any luck locating the boy’s parents or guardians, so he returned to the convenience store, where he was interviewed by police.

Meanwhile, Westcom Dispatch said the boy’s father – Kenneth David Crowe, 26, – had reported his son had run away, Hatcher reported.

When Hatcher met with Crowe and the child’s grandmother, who also lives at the residence, Crowe said his son had left the apartment without his knowledge. He was reportedly sleeping at the time. The boy’s grandmother was in the bathroom at the time, Hatcher said in his report.

Neither adult could explain why it took them more than 50 minutes to notice the child was gone, according to the police report.

This wasn’t the first time the boy has disappeared.

In late July, West Des Moines police called Dallas County Department of Human Services after a similar incident, Hatcher wrote. In 2011, Clive police reported that a toddler wearing only a diaper was “running around their city,” according to the report.

Hatcher reported Saturday’s incident to the social worker assigned to the family, who asked that the 5-year-old be released into the custody of his grandmother.