A four-year-old girl in Unna, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, was found sleeping outside her kindergarten early Sunday morning after sneaking out of her home to be the first to arrive at the daycare center. An attentive passerby discovered the child sleeping on the pavement in front of the kindergarten entrance shortly before 5:30 AM and immediately alerted the police, according to N-TV.
When officers arrived at the scene, they were astonished to find the young girl asleep in front of the closed kindergarten. The police could hardly believe their eyes upon encountering the situation, reported Die Welt.
The girl had decided to leave her nearby home during the night to be the first at her beloved daycare center, despite it being closed for the Christmas season. "It did not matter that the kindergarten was generally closed on Sundays and also would not reopen this year due to the Christmas season; the determination of the little adventurer was not diminished by this fact," reported Bild.
After realizing the kindergarten was closed, the girl lay down in front of the entrance to wait for it to open. Without even a blanket, she fell asleep on the hard pavement in the darkness and cold weather, as noted by Deutsche Welle. The weather in the Unna area that night was around six degrees Celsius with rain.
Police officers swiftly located the girl's home and returned her to her parents, who were reportedly unaware that she was missing. The parents were "baffled" by the officers' visit, according to police reports cited by Deutsche Welle.
According to a statement on the Unna Police's Facebook page, the parents had not noticed her disappearance at all. "The sleepy parents were more than astonished when the police stood at their door with their daughter and were quickly informed, allowing them to receive her back safely," reported Focus Online.
The girl’s explanation puzzled both the police officers and her parents: she wanted to be the first to enter the kindergarten on Sunday morning. According to Die Zeit, her motive was clear despite the circumstances.
Residents who heard about the story expressed relief and amusement at the outcome. "Thankfully it all went well. Still, very sweet!" commented one user on social media. Other users shared similar childhood experiences upon hearing the story. "I remember going to school alone at 6:00 in the morning as a child. My father then dropped by to bring me the bag I had forgotten to take with me," one user commented. Another user remarked, "Sounds familiar to me."
The kindergarten in Unna, described as a true children's paradise, is run by a parents' initiative and usually begins at 7:15 AM, according to Bild. Even on a weekday, the little kindergarten fan would have been too early, Bild noted.
The girl's adventure ended happily thanks to the vigilant passerby and the quick response of the police.
Police officers were able to quickly locate her home and gently drove her back, so much so that the girl was still sleeping when the police car arrived in front of her house in the quiet residential area on the outskirts of Unna.
This article was written in collaboration with generative AI company Alchemiq