Toddler goes missing for 4 hours in Rancho Cucamonga bus mix-up

RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif. (KABC) -- A Rancho Cucamonga couple pulled their 3-year-old son from an early education center after a bus driver dropped their child off at the wrong location, confusing him for another student.

Robert Ramos Jr., 3, is like any other boy his age except that he is slightly verbally delayed. He was part of a summer school program that was supposed to help him catch up to his peers.

But his parents pulled him from Frost Early Education Center in the city after they said he went missing Monday morning.

His mother, Sabrina Ramos, said her son was placed on the bus at 10:30 a.m. An hour later, Robert had not returned home. Ramos was at work when she was told about it and that sent off alarm bells.

"I called the school. The school said we put him on the bus, we're not sure where he goes. You need to talk to the transportation company. I called the transportation company and they said no, we don't know where he's at either," Ramos said.

Ramos said she contacted police, who began searching for the child.

It wasn't until four hours later that the family learned Robert had been dropped off at a Tutor Time day care center.

"My son is not affiliated to Tutor Time at all. They said they had my son and they knew it was my son because he had an ID badge in his backpack," Ramos said.

The San Bernardino County superintendent of schools sent Eyewitness News a statement that read in part:

Eyewitness News reached out to Visser, who did not want to comment.

A police report shows investigators spoke to the bus driver, who said there was a mix-up with another student.

"Which, if that was the case, why did it take four hours for him to get to Tutor Time?" Ramos said.

She said she has more questions than answers about what happened.

"He was on there for four hours - without food, without water. They said he was sleeping. I need to know, was he left on the bus? What happened to him?" she said.

Ramos added that she took her son to a hospital to be checked out. The superintendent said her department, the district and the transportation company are continuing to investigate what happened and how the mix-up occurred.