In the middle of the night in Toledo, Ohio, police say they walked into a dark child care center and found three young kids inside with no adult in sight. The children, just 6, 3 and 11 months old, had been left to ride out the early morning hours alone in a place their parents trusted to keep them safe. What unfolded next has shaken families, rattled regulators and raised hard questions about how something this basic could go so wrong.
The case centers on a single worker who was supposed to be watching those children and is now facing criminal charges. But for the parents who showed up to a locked building at 2 a.m., and for a city that prides itself on being tight knit, the story feels bigger than one bad decision. It is about trust, oversight and what it really means to hand over a child’s care to someone else.
The 2 a.m. discovery inside a Toledo daycare
The overnight scare played out at Little Miracles Child Care in Toledo, where parents say they arrived in the early hours of a Saturday to find the building dark and locked. One mother later described pulling up around 2 a.m., expecting to grab her daughter and head home, only to realize no one was answering the door and the lights were off inside. Her panic grew as she realized her little girl and two other children were still supposed to be in there, with no adult visible and no way to get in.
According to police, officers were called to the scene and eventually made their way into the center, where they found three children, ages 6, 3 and 11 months, alone inside the facility. Investigators say the worker assigned to that overnight shift had left the kids unattended, a detail later confirmed in a criminal complaint that laid out how the children were discovered in the locked daycare in the middle of the night. The mother who first raised the alarm would later describe the moment as a gut punch, telling reporters it felt like a deep betrayal of the trust she had placed in the people running the center.
What police say the daycare worker did
Toledo Police quickly focused on the employee who was supposed to be supervising the children, identifying him as 23-year-old Tommy Colbert. Officers say Colbert was the staff member on duty when the three kids were left alone inside Little Miracles Child Care, and that he had walked away from the building while still responsible for them. In a criminal case that followed, Colbert was charged with three counts of Child Endangerment, a set of allegations that reflect each of the children police say he left behind.
Investigators later detailed how they tried to get into the daycare and eventually encountered Colbert, who at first insisted he had been in the back of the building. Body camera footage released by Toledo Police shows officers pressing him on where he had been and why the children were alone. Court records cited by local reporters note that Colbert pleaded not guilty to the Child Endangerment charges and was released on his own recognizance while the case moves forward, a standard step that lets him remain free under court supervision as prosecutors continue their work.
Parents describe fear, anger and “betrayal”
For the families whose children were inside that building, the legal language does not quite capture the emotional whiplash of that night. One Toledo mother, who had trusted Little Miracles with her daughter, said she arrived to find the center dark and her child unreachable, then learned that the girl and two other kids had been left alone. She described the experience as “a betrayal,” a feeling that has echoed through interviews with other parents who say they are still replaying those early morning minutes in their heads. Their anger is not just about what happened, but about how easily it could have ended in tragedy if no one had come when they did.
Some parents have gone further, calling for the business to be shut down and for regulators to send a clear message that leaving children alone in a locked daycare is not something that can be brushed off as a one-time mistake. One parent told reporters that “her company needs to be shut down,” a pointed reference to the owner of Little Miracles Child Care and the broader system that allowed the center to keep operating until the state stepped in. Their frustration is rooted in the idea that they did what they were supposed to do, choosing a licensed center and paying for care, only to discover their kids were sitting in the dark without an adult in sight.
Inside the body cam video and the worker’s defense
The public has gotten a closer look at the overnight chaos through police body camera footage that shows officers arriving at the daycare, trying doors and windows and eventually making contact with Colbert. In the video, officers can be heard questioning him about where he had been and why the children were alone, while he insists that he had been in the back of the building. The footage, shared widely online and in local newscasts, captures the tense back-and-forth as officers move from trying to understand the situation to placing Colbert under arrest.
Colbert’s version of events has surfaced in bits and pieces through that video and through court filings. At one point in the body cam recording, he tells officers, “I was in the back,” pushing back on the idea that he had abandoned the children. However, investigators say he left the daycare to visit a friend, a detail that has been repeated in multiple reports and that undercuts his claim that he was simply out of sight inside the building. A separate report on a video segment about the case highlights how the footage has fueled public outrage, with viewers able to see the officers’ frustration and the stark reality of three small children waiting in a locked center in the middle of the night.
The daycare owner and state regulators respond
The owner of Little Miracles Childcare Center has tried to draw a sharp line between her business and the actions of one employee. In interviews, she has said she “never expected this, not even from him,” describing Colbert as someone who, aside from a speeding ticket, did not have a known criminal record. She has emphasized that she was not at the center during the overnight shift and that she believes he acted on his own when he allegedly left the children unattended. At the same time, she has acknowledged that parents trusted her company with their kids and that the incident has badly shaken that trust.
State officials have not left the response solely in the owner’s hands. The Ohio Department of Children and Youth issued a license suspension order to Little Miracles Child Care after the incident, effectively halting operations while regulators review what happened. That order, described in an update from state and local officials, came after investigators confirmed that the three children had been left alone around 4:30 a.m. on that Saturday. For parents, the suspension is a start, but many say they want to see deeper changes in how overnight care is monitored and how quickly the state can step in when something goes wrong.
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