MIDVALE, Utah (ABC 4 News) – A toddler was found wandering Center Street nude just after midnight Wednesday while his mother was at a local pub.
According to Unified Police, the 2-year-old boy had walked approximately two blocks south to Center Street before officers found him.
The mother, 22-year-old Natalie Meza, was at Old Towne Tavern, a neighborhood bar about two blocks west of the apartment.
Meza told police she bathed the child before putting him to sleep. She thought he would be okay unsupervised.
Sherri Schofield is neighbor to the woman and boy.
“If you’re a mother, you don’t leave your child sleeping and go to the bar,”
Schofield said.
Neighbors said they had previously seen the boy walking without clothes in public. Others said Meza routinely walks around the streets or in the alley without her child.
Meza is charged with child abuse and endangering a child. She is being held at the Salt Lake County Jail.
The boy is under the care of Utah’s Division of Child and Family Services.
