A 4-year-old child found wandering alone in Hinesville has led to the arrest of the child’s caregiver.

According to a Hinesville Police Department incident report filed Tuesday by Officer Wade Coetzee, the child, who appeared to be autistic and nonverbal, was found wandering near the El Cheapo service station on General Screven Way shortly before 7 p.m. by a man, who told Coetzee the youngster was running in the area of Welborn Street and Gen. Screven. The man told the officer he stopped the child before entering the heavily traveled intersection.

Officers took the youngster to the HPD and posted his photo on the department’s Facebook page in an attempt to locate his guardians.  The child’s mother and grandmother arrived at the police department to pick up the child.  The mother told authorities the child was in the care of her neighbor, identified in the report as Samantha Wilson, who was supposed to be babysitting the child while the mother was at work.

Officers went to a residence on the 100 block of Gause Street when they found two apartment doors left wide open. The officers were informed the child lived in one of the apartments where a backpack was found with the child’s prekindergarten identification attached to it.

Also outside of the apartment officers found a female's purse, kid shoes, and an alcoholic beverage on the trunk of a car. When officers entered the apartment, they found Wilson “passed out,” allegedly drunk in the bed.

Wilson was arrested and charged with cruelty to children in the second degree.