Missing day care toddlers ‘very orderly’ walking down street

BETHESDA, Md. – Two day care teachers have been fired after four 2-year-olds were found wandering down a Bethesda street Tuesday.

Wendy Rhein says when she arrived at the Bethesda/Lynbrook Child Care Center to pick up her son, a good Samaritan was outside yelling, “Lynbrook, Lynbrook you’ve lost your kids,” ABC7 reports.

The Good Samaritan contacted WTOP, and provided more detail. The man preferred to remain anonymous.

“They were walking lined up, they were very orderly. If I didn’t have kids of my own I probably wouldn’t have noticed they were by themselves,” says the man.

He and his 7-year-old “herded up the children and started walking them back toward Lynbrook.”

The Samaritan says he began calling to try to get the daycare’s attention while still outside the building.

“At first nobody was there, then suddenly a woman bolted out the front door,” he said.

The man says he got the children back to the child care, at the same time Rhein arrived.

Rhein said she asked why the children weren’t supervised, but the center’s director couldn’t explain what happened.

Bethesda/Lynbrook Child Care Center is a member of the Montgomery County Child Care Association. The association has ordered an audit of the facility.

WTOP’s Neal Augenstein contributed to this report. Follow Neal and WTOP on Twitter.

(Copyright 2012 by WTOP. All Rights Reserved.)

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