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4-year-old left alone in Danish daycare

The Local Denmark
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4-year-old left alone in Danish daycare
Father and child were reunited after police got involved. Stock photo: Colourbox

It’s a story that sounds like every parent’s nightmare. A four-year-old girl was left alone in her daycare institution in Randers on Monday after all personnel left for the day and locked the doors.

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A father in the Jutland town of Randers arrived at his daughter's daycare at the end of the day Monday to find her wandering alone crying. 
 
With the doors locked and the centre otherwise empty, the man was forced to call police. 
 
“He called us because there wasn’t anyone in the daycare – everyone had gone home, all the doors were locked – and he could see his four-year-old girl walking around crying inside,” East Jutland Police Commissioner Peter Hunniche told Randers Amtsavis. 
 
The institution, Børnehuset, uses an electronic system in which parents check their children in and out. According to Hunniche, someone must have accidently checked the young girl out.
 
“Then the personnel locked up and went home without checking the premises,” Hunniche said. 
 
After receiving the call from the distraught father, police called municipal authorities who were able to unlock the institution and reunite the crying child with her dad. 
 
The leader of the institution, Helle Foersom, told Randers Amtsavis that figuring out what went wrong “has utmost priority”. 
 
Randers Council’s head of children’s affairs also said she would look into the incident. 
 
Note: This story was updated on May 13 after the father spoke publicly about the incident and clarified that his daughter was four, not five. 
 

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