5-year-old boy wanders from Bloomfield school, ends up at Friendly's restaurant

BLOOMFIELD, N.J. (WABC) -- Police in New Jersey are investigating how a 5-year-old boy managed to wander out of his school on his first day of kindergarten without anyone noticing.

The child was found by a Good Samaritan walking across Broad Street in Bloomfield late Wednesday morning, and she rushed into road to grab him.

She dropped the boy, named Michael, off at Friendly's restaurant located across the street from Brookdale Elementary School, and manager Mike Arnaout and two servers looked after him until police arrived.

"She ran behind him, and she grabbed his hand," Arnaout said. "Then the girls went out, they called me, we grabbed the kid inside, sat him at a table and talked to him...We took care of him, offer him ice cream, offer him food. He was laughing, having a good time."

The superintendent says the boy was missing for only a short time after wandering off from a playground where he was eating his lunch, but Arnaout says it was much longer and that it seems school administrators never noticed.

"At least an hour total," he said. "Forty minutes to an hour. Because he was here about a half hour."

Parents were alarmed.

"Considering I have a 5-year-old here, that is very scary," one mom said.

The boy, who was not hurt, reportedly kept asking Friendly's staff for his grandmother and his mother.

"I'm so happy and thankful that he actually made it across the street," a dad said. "But above all, kids have to be watched."

The superintendent says changes have already been made as a result of this investigation, including closing off the area where the boy was eating lunch. Additionally, a supervisor has been suspended.