All's well after mixup at Mantua daycare center

A 4-year-old girl was accidentally sent from a Mantua day-care center with the wrong man Thursday, then was reunited with her parents after police responded to a call about a possible child abduction.

She even got some ice cream and a trip to the park out of the deal, police said.

Staff at Caring People Alliance, inside a community center on Haverford Avenue near 35th, were called by two girls' mothers, who gave names of two men authorized to pick them up, police said.

Cops said the men had the same last name - Lawson - and the little girls had similar first names.

Around 1 p.m., Jerry Lawson, 48, came to pick up his 2-year-old daughter but left with a 4-year-old girl.

Lawson showed ID, signed the log book and walked out with the girl, Lt. John Walker of the Southwest Detective Division said.

After the pair had departed, Tanya Corbitt, the mother of the child Lawson was supposed to pick up, called and asked to speak with her, Walker said.

Police said the girl fell silent when Corbitt spoke into the phone. Lawson asked Corbitt how old his daughter was, and she said 2.

The child Lawson was walking with told him that she was 4, police said. Corbitt told Lawson to head back. Walker said Corbitt went to the daycare center and called police.

Lawson and the 4-year-old girl went out for ice cream and a trip to the park before anyone called him, police said. They returned around 3:15 p.m.

Police said Lawson had been incarcerated and didn't recognize his daughter because he hadn't seen her since she was about 7 months old.

"He just assumed that he had the right kid," Walker said.

Walker said the employees followed protocol by having Lawson show ID, sign his name and leave his phone number - which is how police contacted him.

The mixup apparently resulted from staff doing only a cursory review of Lawson's ID, Walker said.

"Unfortunately," he said, "most people only look at last names."