Baltimore police find two unsupervised toddlers on Lindale Avenue

Baltimore police found two very young children alone in East Baltimore before dawn, a scene that quickly raised the question of which safety net is supposed to catch toddlers found unsupervised at 3 a.m.

Officers from the Eastern District found the children in the 3400 block of Lindale Avenue at about 2:54 a.m. on May 6, 2026. Police described them as a boy about 3 to 4 years old and a girl about 2. Both were non-verbal and were taken to a local hospital while officers asked the public for help identifying their parents or guardians. Baltimore police urged anyone with information to call 911 or the Eastern District at 410-366-2433.

The parents were located later that day, but the episode underscores how quickly an overnight police call can become a child-welfare matter in Baltimore. In Maryland, Child Protective Services assists children believed to be neglected or abused by parents or other adults with permanent or temporary care or custody. The state’s reporting line for suspected child abuse or neglect is 1-800-91Prevent, or 1-800-917-7383.

Maryland’s child welfare system is state-supervised and state-administered through 24 local departments of social services, including the Baltimore City Department of Social Services. That structure matters when a case like this lands in the system, because police, hospitals, and child-welfare workers may all become part of the response when a child is found alone, especially in the middle of the night.

The scale of the problem is broader than a single block in East Baltimore. Child Welfare League of America data compiled from federal sources show Maryland had 63,893 total referrals for child abuse and neglect in 2023, with 17,668 screened in for Child Protective Services response. Those numbers do not describe this case alone, but they show how often the state’s system is asked to separate a crisis from a close call.

For neighbors on Lindale Avenue, the image is stark: two toddlers, one roughly 3 or 4 and the other about 2, found before sunrise and unable to speak for themselves. In a city where overnight supports can determine whether a child is safe, cases like this reveal how much is riding on fast police response, hospital care, and a child-welfare system that has to work the moment a child is found alone.