'Thought the worst-case scenario': Parents say their son was found in daycare's parking lot

An East Valley family is shaken up after their three-year-old son was found wandering alone in a parking lot after being dropped off at daycare.

It happened Wednesday morning in front of his daycare in Mesa near McKellips Road and Stapley Drive. The boy is OK after being spotted by a worker at a nearby business.

Mesa Police says officers interviewed employees and witnesses and watched surveillance video to understand what happened.

This is what investigators say they've pieced together.

Cassandra Piersen says her husband dropped off their twins at a Mesa daycare like they’ve done every workday for the past year, without issue.

About 45 minutes later, he received a text. Not from the daycare, but from a co-worker, telling him his son had been walking in the parking lot. 

"I mean what would any mom think? I thought the worst-case scenario," Piersen said, the child's mom.

The boy was spotted by a lady outside a dentist's office who took him back inside.

"This is the last thing that any working parent should have to worry about, is leaving their child with a daycare facility, and then being found," she said.

The three-year-old was not hurt, but his mother can't understand how this could happen.

"You have to sign them in, you have to go through two separate doors, and there is supposed to be staff supervising at all times. And then there’s a third door which goes to the children’s classroom," Piersen explained.

His parents are confused, but also grateful their son is OK.

The daycare wouldn’t say anything about the situation, and the woman who found the child wasn’t available to talk.

Piersen says her children will not be going back to that daycare.