Maine 3-year-old walks mile in middle of night

BAILEYVILLE, Maine (AP) — A 3-year-old Maine girl, possibly confused by a dream, walked a mile to a grocery store in the middle of the night through freshly fallen snow, thinking her mother was inside buying pizza.

Hope Trott woke up in the middle of the night, put on little ruby red shoes, threw a jacket on over her nightdress and walked to the store with the temperature at 29 degrees, police said. An employee found the girl crying outside the store at 4 a.m. Wednesday and called police.

"He got to the door and the little girl came walking down the sidewalk," Melanie Devoe, assistant store manager, said Wednesday. "She was crying, saying, 'My mommy is in there.' He knew she wasn't because the alarm was on and the door was locked.

"He zipped her coat up, and he came in here and called 911, then went back out with her," Devoe said.

Officers followed the child's footprints to her Baileyville home, found the front door open, and thinking a home invasion was in progress, entered with guns drawn, police told the Bangor Daily News. They found Hope's parents, Laura and Jesse Trott, and her older siblings, Hunter and Ann, fast asleep.

Laura Trott said it was a frightening experience and she was shocked to find out why police were there. She not sure what caused her daughter to leave the house.

"I don't know if she woke up in a dream and thought I went to the store to get a pizza, but she went to look for me," she said.

The family has since installed a chain and deadbolt to their door.

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Information from: Bangor Daily News, http://www.bangordailynews.com