Cops Question Connecticut Mom Who Let 7-Year-Old Walk a Mile

It was the spring of 2021 in New Britain, Connecticut, and Julie-Ann Toalston was in carpool mode. She had her four kids in the car and planned to stop at her sister’s house to pick up three nieces and nephews; the kids all attended the same magnet school.

Everyone was in the car and ready to go, but Toalston’s seven-year-old daughter Vesper had a meltdown. (It somehow involved having chosen the wrong costume—pirate—for superhero day.) Vesper refused to buckle her seatbelt, so Toalston ordered her to walk home to face dad. It was a little less than mile back to the house.

Relieved, Vesper headed off, and mom drove on.

Toalston’s phone rang on her way back from dropping off the rest of the kids. The New Britain police had Vesper, and wanted Toalston to retrieve her.

“I was fully expecting to thank the police and bring Vesper home,” says Toalston. “But that did not happen.”

Instead, when she arrived at the station, she learned that a crossing guard had seen Vesper walking unsupervised and called the police. After Toalston explained the situation to them, one of the cops said, “Hold on, now we have to corroborate this story with your sister.”

They swiftly ascertained that Toalston was telling the truth, but wouldn’t let the matter go.

“‘She is way too young to be walking this distance by herself,'” Toalston recalls one of the officers telling her.

Toalston did not agree that a seven-year-old was ill-equipped to walk less than a mile on a mild spring day. But she bit her tongue and followed the cops’ orders to drive home.

They followed her.

The officers parked in her driveway for about 15 minutes.

“I think that’s when they were calling the Department of Child and Family Services (DCF),” says Toalston.

Before t