WILMETTE, Ill.-- A lesson in responsibility turned into a frightening ordeal for an Illinois mother and her daughter recently after police were called on the little girl while she walked her dog.
Corey Widen of Wilmette says she allowed her eight-year-old daughter Dorothy to walk the family's dog Marshmallow near their home.
Widen says that a neighbor then called the police, saying that the girl was walking around the neighborhood unaccompanied by an adult. "Apparently this person was not happy with that, and then they called DCFS and told them that my daughter was again under 5, had been unsupervised for over an hour and a half."
Widen said her daughter was gone for five minutes. “I was in the backyard and I could see her through the yard," she told nbcchicago.com
After police investigated and found nothing wrong, according to Widen, the Department of Children and Family Services contacted her two days later as part of an investigation into the matter.
Widen then posted about her ordeal on Facebook, and says she received lots of calls from others that have gone through similar situations with DCFS.
"Upper-middle-class stay at home moms who have been investigated by DCFS because somebody just didn't have anything better to do with their time and called the police on them," Widen said.
Widen says she is working with a non-profit to propose reforms to the child welfare system and to help others better navigate the system,nbcchicago.com reported.
