LAKE FOREST

A 2-year-old girl who had wandered into the middle of an intersection last week was returned to her mother by a member of the city’s senior citizen patrol unit.

Cal Blaney, a volunteer for the Orange County Sheriff’s Team of Active Retired Citizens, found the child standing alone Thursday afternoon in the center of Skybird Lane near Trabuco Road.

Blaney said he passed the girl in the team’s patrol van and became concerned when he returned a few minutes later to find her still standing in the street.

“I could tell the child was extremely scared,” he said. “I didn’t want to put my lights on because it would scare her more. I got out and she squeezed my hand and I knew that she was lost.”

The girl’s mother ran into Blaney while he was knocking on doors to find someone who knew the lost child.