Police: 3-year-old boy reported missing in Fla. dropped off at NYC’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral

Police: 3-year-old Fla. boy left at NYC cathedral

NEW YORK — A little boy reported missing in Florida was abandoned by a couple at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City with a crumpled note in his hand bearing his mother’s name and the name and number of a Florida detective, police said.

Investigators on Wednesday were looking for a man and a woman who came with 3-year-old Nathaniel Fons to the famed cathedral on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue at about 6:30 p.m. Tuesday. The jittery woman asked at the information desk to see a priest and was told to go around the corner and someone would come down, police said.

Instead, she disappeared. Nathaniel was found wandering alone by a security guard who at first thought he was a lost child, but he then saw the note and immediately called police.

Nathaniel was in the custody of child services officials in New York. His grandfather, Donald Fons, said from his Land O Lakes home near Tampa, Fla., that he didn’t know when Nathaniel would return.

“They said he’s fine. He’s happy,” Fons said. “He is happy and he is in good health.”

“It’s just phenomenal. It’s been a roller coaster for the last three days,” Fons said.

Flagler County authorities in Florida had issued an Amber Alert for Nathaniel on Sunday, after his mother and a companion were arrested on charges of operating a counterfeit money operation. A convenience store clerk reported receiving a counterfeit $100 bill and gave authorities a description of the recreational vehicle the suspects were driving.

Police stopped the RV, reported stolen out of New York, and arrested Nathaniel’s mother Erin Comeau, 26, and Christopher Brandstter-Howell, 21.

Comeau said her son was in a separate car traveling with friends. That couple was also wanted in the counterfeit operation, but it was unclear whether they were the ones who left the child at the church.

Police on Wednesday were examining security camera footage to identify the man and the woman seen with the boy before disappearing.

Donald Fons said the mother signed over custody of the boy to him and his wife from jail, and he hoped Nathaniel would be released to his grandparents after a hearing in New York. He said the Flagler County Sheriff’s office faxed over the custody information to New York officials.

Fons said the boy, nicknamed Nathan, lived with his parents at his grandparent’s home from birth until last June, when Nathan’s father took a job on a fishing boat in Vancouver, Wash. and the couple moved to Washington state. But his father was arrested on probation violation charges and was returned to Florida, Fons said.

Fons, 57, a former Denver sheriff’s deputy, and his wife, Freida, said they started proceedings to adopt the boy four months ago. He said that’s when Comeau took off with her son, traveling around the country. She’d post updates and photos on Facebook, but they could never find her.

“The range of emotions have been from breaking out crying to just joy,” Fons said. “I’m just going to give him a hellacious hug and just show him that someone loves him. We’re just planning to spend as much time as possible with him and get him acclimated into our family again.”

Associated Press writer Mike Schneider in Orlando, Fla., contributed to this report.