Allegheny Township woman accused of letting 3-year-old wander along busy road

An Allegheny Township woman who told police she didn’t know her 3-year-old left the house and walked a mile along a busy road to a Family Dollar store was ordered to stand trial.

Micala Nicole Edinger, 26, of the 200 block of Sandalwood Drive, was held for court on a felony count of endangering the welfare of children during a preliminary hearing Tuesday, Feb. 7 before District Judge Cheryl Peck Yakopec, according to court records.

Police wrote in a criminal complaint charging Edinger that officers were dispatched about 5 p.m. Dec. 8 to the Family Dollar store at 451 Hyde Park Road for a report of a young child wandering the store alone.

A clerk told police the child was in the store about 45 minutes before she noticed he wasn’t accompanied by an adult, the complaint said.

Employees identified the child’s mother as Edinger and called her to the store, police said.

When she arrived, she told police she didn’t realize her child had left the house and thought he was upstairs in his room cleaning, the complaint says.

Police said the child walked about a mile to the store using Sandalwood Drive and then crossed Hyde Park Road, which is a two-lane highway with a turning lane.

Video surveillance from the store shows the boy enter alone through an exit door, police said.

Officers noted the temperature was about 40 degrees outside, and the boy was not wearing a jacket.

Police filed a state ChildLine report, and a caseworker from the Westmoreland County Children’s Bureau was assigned.

Edinger was released on a $1,000 unsecured bond. Formal arraignment in Westmoreland County Common Pleas Court is scheduled for April 12.