Children Services in Lorain removed two children from a home after a 2-year-old girl was found sleeping in a playground alone Monday morning, according to Elyria police.
Officers were dispatched to the 100 block of Louden Court when a daycare worker said a man found a child at a playground. The woman said the man rang her doorbell around 7 a.m. and said he saw a suspicious lump in the middle of the playground. He said he had been watching the lump since 6 a.m. and thought it might be a small child, the police report said.
The woman went to look for herself and saw that the lump was a 2-year-old girl, according to the police report. The woman told officers there were no adults around and the man who had rang the daycare's doorbell left without leaving his name.
The woman said she brought the child inside and attempted to administer care. According to the police report, the child was dirty, cold, scared, shaking, hungry and non-verbal. She had a soiled diaper and socks, but no shoes.
Officers tried to find where the child lived. After about 30 minutes, they said they found her residence on to 100 block of Louden Court. Inside were her 71-year-old grandmother, Sharon Lambert, and her highly intoxicated mother, Shandra Lambert, who had just walked up to the residence, according to police.
Officers interviewed the grandmother, who they said had a boot or casted leg and was very slow to get around. She told police her daughter, Shandra Lambert, and boyfriend, Jason Healy, went out the night before, leaving her to watch her two granddaughters. She said the girls watched movies until 9 p.m. when they fell asleep on the couch, according to police. She told police she fell asleep in the reclining chair next to them around 2 a.m. and everything was normal.
The grandmother was awakened later by officers knocking on the door, police said. She was issued a citation and summons for endangering children.
As police were interviewing the grandmother, they said the mother kept interrupting and tried to speak with officers. They said she used profanity and was not understanding why officers were at the residence.
Officers said the mother was highly intoxicated. She told police she drank the night before, came home in the early hours of the morning, left to go to another friend's house to drink some more and returned home as officers were knocking on the door.
Police said they observed the following conditions inside the home: two outside garbage cans overflowing with trash and bags, numerous beer and pop cans, dirty clothes stacked on the kitchen table, old rotting food on plates, flies, insects, plates covering all counters, toys and debris in all areas, nowhere to walk, soiled and ripped furniture, no air circulation and a strong odor. Officers said they called Children Services.
About 30 minutes after officers arrived, they said they heard a man's voice coming from inside the house. Healy, who was identified as the child's father, was just waking up from the night before, according to police. Healy told police he and Shandra Lambert had a couple of drinks the night before. He said he went to bed but believed Lambert continued drinking.
Police said Lambert continued to interrupt them as they questioned Healy. They said even Healy told her to go back inside and sleep it off.
When Children Services arrived, they conducted their own interviews. Police said Lambert became angry with them and tried to stop their investigation and push them out of the residence. Officers told Lambert to sit down and allow the investigation to continue.
Children Services took pictures of the residence and determined the children were in danger. The children were removed from the home.
While waiting for the children to be picked up, Shandra, smoking a cigarette, went outside. According to police, she said, "This is f****** b*******. You people are f****** stupid." At this point, Shandra was arrested for disorderly conduct persisting and taken to the Lorain County Sheriff's Office.
