Updated 7 p.m. Dec. 21, 2014
A 3-year-old girl who was found alone at a busy Fairfax District shopping center was reunited with her father Sunday and an investigation was underway into how she ended up abandoned at a valet stand.
“Audrey” was reunited with her dad, who came into the Los Angeles Police Department’s Wilshire Station about 1:30 p.m., department spokesman Officer Drake Madison said.
The county Department of Child and Family Services, which had taken custody of the child, was investigating, Madison said.
Police told reporters the child’s mother and father were not together, and that the dad said a miscommunication had left the girl stranded at the mall.
The father, who was not facing criminal charges, went to the station after the child’s grandfather, who lives in San Diego, saw a news report about the girl, according to a report.
The child’s picture was flashed by police early Sunday, when it became apparent that the little girl had been left alone at The Grove shopping center, near Third Street at Fairfax Avenue. Parking valets there reported that a woman dropped off the girl in the valet parking area with a car seat Saturday evening.
Nobody ever arrived to pick her up, so the valets called police at about 6 p.m. Saturday, according to the LAPD.
Although she was able to provide her first name, Audrey, she did not know her last name or address.
— City News Service