A child was lost and found at a Great Neck Plaza Halloween event on Friday, Oct. 31, Mayor Ted Rosen said.
Rosen said police officers approached him around 6:15 p.m. and told the mayor “that a young child had been separated from her mother and had gone missing.”
“I can tell you from personal experience as a parent that’s a very frightening thing to happen to any parent and to the child,” Rosen said.
According to Rosen, police officers immediately alerted the village staff and two code enforcement officers who were working the event. In a matter of minutes, the code enforcement officers were able to locate the “young child,” he said.
Rosen said the child was found walking down West Station Plaza toward Middle Neck Road by herself, apparently on her way to trick-or-treat.
The child appears to be female, as evidenced by Rosen’s use of the pronouns “she/her” throughout the announcement. Rosen did not disclose additional information about the child’s identity in the announcement on Wednesday, Nov. 5.
Though the event was brief, he said, it was serious.
“It was relatively brief in duration, but it was very serious when it happened, and we were very concerned,” he said.
He commended the police officers and village staff for their prompt responses.
The board and the Business Improvement District, which hosted the event, honored the two code enforcement officers who assisted in locating the young child: Farid Huezo and Terence O’Connor.
President of the Business Improvement District Marnie Ives and trustee and Business Improvement District member Michael DeLuccia presented certificates of commendation to O’Connor and Huezo.
Ives and DeLuccia thanked each honoree “for excellence in his quick, alert and diligent actions in assisting in locating a young child who had become separated from her mother at the Great Neck Plaza’s Business Improvement District Halloween event” before handing each code enforcement officer a certificate.
The officers posed for a group photo with their certificates, a small group of meeting attendees clapping in the background.
“I’m so proud of Terence and Farid, oh my god,” one attendee said.
