Baby-sitter charged with endangering

1/27/2006

BOWLING GREEN - A Perrysburg woman was cited for endangering children after a 3-year-old boy she was baby-sitting wandered outside while she was sleeping.

Bowling Green police were called to the Colony Lane apartment complex about 9:20 a.m. Wednesday on a report of a toddler walking around unsupervised. Officers found the boy in pajamas, an unzipped sweatshirt, adult-size slippers, and a baseball hat.

The boy told police he was freezing and looking for his mother. A maintenance worker at the complex directed police to the boy's apartment. Police said Cheryl Gardenhire, 31, told them she was watching the youngster while his mother went to the dentist. She said she had gone to sleep on the couch and did not hear him go downstairs or go out the door.

According to police reports, it was 31 degrees outside with 21 mph winds that morning.