Good Samaritan steps in after 3-year-old walks out of daycare

CLEARFIELD, Utah (KSTU) - A 3-year-old girl’s first day at daycare did not go as planned when she walked out the front door of the facility by herself. Luckily, a good Samaritan spotted her on the street and stopped to help find her mom.

What was supposed to be an exciting first day at daycare for 3-year-old Emerhys Guthrie was a nightmare for her mother, Briana Evans. She dropped her daughter off the morning of Sept. 6 at Beehive Daycare in Clearfield, Utah.

Hours later, Evans received a phone call from Winegars grocery store, telling her Emerhys was there.

“I was like, ‘There’s no way. She’s supposed to be at daycare,’” the mother said.

Video from Clearfield Police shows the 3-year-old at the daycare, walking through one room, out into the hallway and eventually into the lobby.

“When she got to the front door, she opened it. It dinged, so she stopped and looked up at the window. The girl who was sitting there, facing, started looking around right as she walked out,” Evans said.

John Thurman, a good Samaritan driving by, says he saw Emerhys running down the sidewalk, so he made a U-Turn and started following her to make sure she was OK.

“The little gal darted down the alleyway where the big trucks enter to go make deliveries at Winegars here. She was running through … unaccompanied. Something just wasn’t right,” he said.

Thurman followed the 3-year-old into the grocery store and notified one of the employees, who happened to know Emerhys’ mother and gave her a call.

“Made a little purchase for her [Emerhys], just to try to keep her at ease, waiting for the police to show up. Her mom came in and was very appreciative that somebody had made sure her little girl was safe,” Thurman said.

Once Evans retrieved her daughter, she says she called the daycare.

“I just nonchalantly was asking them how her first day was. And they were like, ‘Oh, she’s doing great. She’s in the big kid room playing with toys.’ And I was like, ‘Really? ‘Cause she’s standing here right now,’” she said.

Evans is thankful that Thurman was there to make sure her daughter was safe that day.

“I don’t know what would have happened to her … and it’s mindboggling,” she said.

Management at the daycare facility has not commented on this incident. Several complaints previously made against the facility claim the staff did not provide or maintain “active supervision of each child at all times.”