BY M. JUNAID ALAM
Josephine Patti and her cousin, Stephanie Teritore, came across the young girl while driving around shortly after 6 p.m. on Feb. 18.”We were just driving by and all of a sudden I saw cars circling around a girl,” Patti said. “None of them were even stopping.”She dialed 911 and described to the operator the intersection, 224th Street and 64th Avenue, and placed the crying, wet girl, whose first name is Kathy, in her car and offered her a blanket and juice box.”She was crying a little bit, but I had juice boxes so she sipped on one of those,” recalled Patti, who has a 2-year-old daughter of her own. She and her cousin then flagged down a fire engine, whose crew members also offered the girl some comfort.Although Kathy did not know the girl's phone number or address, she knew she attended St. Robert's.Patti said police soon received word from the girl's mother, saying the girl was not there when she returned home. “The police put two and two together and figured it out and they arrested her,” she said, referring to the mother.A police detective at the 111th Precinct confirmed the arrest, but the officer involved, Detective Milton Calix, was on vacation and could not be reached for comment. The mother's name was also not available. “Calix is a true hero in this department,” the detective said.After being taken to the hospital, the girl was released to her father, who was working at the time of the incident.At the same time, Patti was also apprehensive and a little frustrated by what she described as a scene of general indifference and inaction.”All those people went by and circled around and none of them stopped,” she said incredulously. “I'm glad I found her and I didn't just hear about her the next day in the news, you know… What kind of mother just leaves their kid home like that?”
