If the 'welcome sign' on Rocklynn Maldonado's home doesn't prove it, the actions of the 12 year old early Friday morning certainly did.
"I just heard a little jiggling noise on the door and I just heard a little kid's voice saying, 'Where's my papa?'" Rocklynn Maldonado said.
Longmont Police in Colorado said the 3-year-old boy wandered nearly ten blocks in the middle of the night from his home and into Maldonado's home around 2:30 Friday morning.
"He had no shirt, no shoes, just some blue and white shorts. He cried a couple of times, I remember that. He just kept asking for his dad," Maldonado said.
Police said it took them several hours to figure out the boy's identity and locate his father, Angelo Fernandez.
Once they found Fernandez, officers said he refused to answer the door.
Fernandez told ABC15's sister station 7NEWS Sunday morning it isn't true that he refused to come and get his son when police called him.
"I never refused to pick my son up. I called police when I woke up," Fernandez said. He suggested the police weren't immediately responsive to his call.
Fernandez said he woke up about 5:30 a.m. and found the boy was missing.
"I woke up and found my son had unlocked the door and left in the middle of the night while we were sleeping," Fernandez said. "I took off, running around looking for him."
"I'm not a bad parent. I'm a great parent," Fernandez said.
Longmont Police Department said Fernandez eventually went to the station where he was given a summons for child abuse.
"It's his son! Kind of makes you wonder, you know, that's probably why the kid wandered off, no supervision," said neighbor, Rudolph Rogers.
We checked his background and found Fernandez is a registered sex offender with a ten-page rap sheet including sex assault on a child by one in a position of trust. Longmont police said despite his lengthy record, they found nothing on his file restricting him from living with kids.
Police said the toddler has been placed in foster care.
"I think the kid should be taken away for good," Rogers said.
