THE parents of a five-year-old found alone at a lights display said they accidentally left him there due to having a large number of children.

Alexander spent the night with police after he was found alone in Vermont South last night.

When located this afternoon, his parents told police they had taken the family and other neighbourhood children in two cars to visit the display.

Due to having a large number of children with them they accidentally Alexander behind them.

The family has eight children.

A member of the public noticed Alexander standing alone at the display at the corner of Narracan Drive and Ensay Court at 11.30 last night.

Police said Alexander couldn't tell them his surname, where he lived or how he got to the Christmas display.

Police said he was in good spirits while authorities waited for the family to contact them and was cared for by workers from the Department of Human Services.

Police said Alexander's parents had been located at 1.45pm today.

Alexander spent the night in the watch house at Nunawading police station and was then taken into the care of the Department of Human Services (DHS) on Monday morning.

The DHS will speak to the parents to determine how they could have left him behind.

Sergeant Wayne Williams, from Nunawading police, said the family took two cars from their Dandenong home with their eight children, as well as a neighbour's children, to the lights.

Each parent thought the other had Alexander in their car for the trip home, he said.

Sgt Williams said the parents didn't realise Alexander was missing until lunchtime.

Sgt Williams said Alexander slept well at the police station.

"We understand that they had taken the family in two cars to visit the display and due to having a large number of children with them they have accidentally left Alexander at the location," police said in a statement.

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I can actually understand how this could happen (leaving him behind) but what I don't undertsand is how no one realised he was gone till lunch time the next day.

Reminds me of the time in high school when I went to a friend's house. This friend came from a large Irish Catholic family (9 brothers and sisters). I recall his mother looking at me and saying "You aren't mine". And I said, "no, ma'am"

Usually these days the big families consist of "yours, mine and ours".

Ah, one of my earliest childhood memories, although a slightly different angle.

I was around five years old and out shopping with my Mum and big sister at the Co-op in St. Helens. I was just standing there looking around no more than four or five feet away from them, when this stupid old bint grabs my arm and whisks me away. Not only is this woman so dense that she can't tell the difference between a child in distress and one that isn't, she doesn't take me to the stores own security, but to the police station two miles down the road....... of course, by this time, I am in distress, and so is my Mum.

She found me with the help of my Uncle Les (who was the manager of the Co-op) about an hour later, after the store had stopped selling and everyone had gone on a small boy hunt.

I always remember the policemen being very nice to me, they bought me a Pimblettes steak pie, which I've been addicted to ever since, dam I miss those pies.

Isn't St Helens where they sent Napoleon after Waterloo?

Yes.................On a free transfer from Wigan

Another reminiscence

Working in Iran (Shiraz area) - on the weekends we used to drive many kilometres to a river that had an area deep enough to swim in. Made a change from the swimming pools with their Women-only days, Men-only days and Family Fridays - which were overcrowded.

One Friday there were about twenty of us Brits, plus one or two Iranian families. Some people left, some of us stayed for a final dip. Our doctor trod on something soft, investigated and came up with a drowned boy of about six years old. Didn't belong to any of us still there and after about 15-20 minutes of artificial respiration there were no life signs. Turned out later he belonged to one of the Irani families and again it was thought that he was with the other group.

Very sad.

As regards the kid in this thread not being missed until lunch - if the parents thought that he had 'stayed-over' with the other family, then maybe he wasn't expected back until lunch. Not unusual in my household. Feeding breakfast for eight or more sometimes.

A story I heard years ago about the Hartford circus fire in 1941 always haunted me.

Among the many victims was the body of a small girl who was never identified.

Ah, one of my earliest childhood memories, although a slightly different angle.

I was around five years old and out shopping with my Mum and big sister at the Co-op in St. Helens.

Isn't St Helens where they sent Napoleon after Waterloo?

No, this is St Helens

Sorry, on second thoughts this is Mount St Helens. My bad.

There's been a story in the press in the last few days about an American family who have just had their 18th kid!

And all the kids names start with the letter J.

They are making a tv show about them called "And baby makes 20".

I've wondered how long it would be before anyone noticed if one of that hoard went missing.

I went to school with kids from a family of 16. They kept building onto their house, little tacked on timber framed rooms. There was a long dormitory room down one side where the older boys slept.

They were all good footballers/netballers but if one of the younger kids was dropped from the side none of the others would turn up for the game, causing considerable disruption.

I've lost touch now but I sometimes wonder how many grandkids there are in the family.