Mom forgot kids at daycare overnight, told police they were kidnapped, Texas cops say

A mother in Waco, Texas, could face charges after reporting that her children had been kidnapped when she had really forgotten them at daycare overnight, according to police.

Authorities said an Amber Alert was issued for the two girls after their mother told officers on Wednesday that a man named “Chris” had taken the children, police wrote in a Facebook post Thursday. Officers searched the area after the kidnapping was reported around 11:30 p.m.

Police figured out that the man accused of taking the children was 37-year-old Christopher Ray Petty, who was “wanted on multiple warrants that include an unrelated” charge of family violence, police said. The girls, 3 and 4, were thought to “be in grave or immediate danger,” WFAA reports.

But Amber Alert and local media coverage worked, according to police.

“Due to social media, immediate local news media coverage, and an issued Amber Alert, we received information that led us to the children,” police wrote on Facebook. “They were recovered and are safe.”

It hadn’t been a kidnapping after all, according to authorities.

Police said that the mother, who wasn’t identified, “had forgotten she took the children to daycare yesterday and left them there. The daycare staff made multiple attempts yesterday to contact the mother but were unsuccessful in doing so. One of the daycare workers later took the two children home, bathing them and taking care of them through the night.”

According to police, the “intense coverage of the possible kidnapping” alerted the daycare workers to what was going on, and they called the police.

Authorities said the hunt for the girls also revealed “less than favorable living conditions inside the children’s home,” prompting officers to call Child Protective Services, who removed the children from the mother’s custody. Police said the investigation is ongoing.

The Amber Alert had gone out around 4:30 a.m. Thursday saying the girls’ mother had fallen asleep around 1 p.m. on Wednesday and found the children had disappeared when she got up around 11 p.m., KWTX reports. Authorities canceled the Amber Alert around 7 a.m., according to the TV station.

Police did not identify the daycare involved, KWTX reports.

“There are certainly a lot of questionable circumstances to this entire case and we will try to get to the true facts of what happened,” Waco Sgt. W. Patrick Swanton said, according to the Waco Tribune-Herald.

Petty, the man accused of kidnapping the children, wasn’t involved in the incident but is still being sought on unrelated charges, according to police.