Cops: Keep closer eye on kids in the cold

Austin police are asking parents to keep closer watch on their children during hazardous weather after officers found a 10-year-old boy wandering a southeast neighborhood during Thursday’s blizzard.

Police Chief Brian Krueger said witnesses reported the child in the middle of the street near the 1900 block of Eighth Avenue Southeast at 5 p.m. Thursday. The boy told police he was going to a friend’s house but didn’t know where the friend lived. At the boy’s home, the boy’s mother told police she knew he was going over to a friend’s, but police notified her the child didn’t know his friend’s address.

The child didn’t appear to have weather-related injuries but looked very cold and was outside for some time before witnesses called the police. The National Weather Service recorded 40 mph wind gusts at that time and the wind chill was at 12 below zero.

Krueger called the incident “a good wakeup call for parents to make sure they know where their children are.”

“Fortunately this one turned out alright, but obviously it could have been much worse,” he said.

The case is being forwarded to Mower County’s Health and Human Services department.