one of my greatest fears

Thus far, Burrito's wandering problem has been isolated to specific places. IE: from home to the park or into a neighbors house (uninvited) the grocery store, church, baseball games,etc.
Yesterday one of my greatest fears became a reality. Before I tell you the story let me tell you a little about wandering also known as BOLTING ELOPING RUNNING

Elopement, formally defined as leaving an area without supervisor or caregiver’s permission

is prevalent among people with developmental disabilities. Based on a US nation-wide survey conducted in 2011, roughly half of the children with autism attempt to elope

Children with autism are particularly susceptible to elopement as they are unaware of the dangers in the environment into which they wandered.

According to a research done in California in 2001, an increase in the mortality rate among children with autism is related to external accidental causes such as suffocation and drowning, which mainly result from elopement . (info taken from report found at http://www.praxis.uoftengineering.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/esc102-20121-rfp-b-autistic-elopement.pdf)

 

We have spent a great amount of time studying this unique issue. We have developed safety plans. We have taken him to all the neighbors and explained our problem and built a nice sized bubble of responsible adults around him who will keep an extra close eye on him and bring home if seen wandering. When out in the community we make sure he has a 1:1 with at least one of our oldest if not a parent or other adult. We are trying to find financing for a tall privacy fence for our yard, also for an alarm system in our home. We have contacted the local police and fire and informed them of his problem. We THOUGHT we had covered all bases. Which is why yesterday took me by surprise and shook me to the core!

Yesterday morning after the kids got on the bus I had to run some errands. First stop was to pick something up from a foster family in Des Moines. They happen to live on the corner of one of the busiest streets in Des Moines. All was going great, I stood on the front lawn of the house chatting with the foster mom. Burrito was playing right there with me, he stayed right where he was supposed to the entire time! When it was time to leave I stooped down to his level and explained to him that it was dangerous and he needed to get in the van from the side that was close to the grass. I opened the door watched him climb in. After I saw him get into his carseat I said "Good Job!! Now mommy is coming around to buckle you, OK?" (We drive a 15 passenger van so it is impossible to see around the van). I opened the door to buckle him and he was GONE!!! not only was he not in his car seat, he was NOT IN THE VAN!!!! My heart flip flopped in my chest I felt like I had been punched in the stomach. I flew around the back of the van frantically scanning the area, I did not see him. I ran down the sidewalk and there 3 houses down sitting under a tree talking to a puppy sat my Burrito.
The difficult thing is that reasoning does not work, explaining danger is useless as he has no idea what danger is. I scooped him up gave my apologies to the owner of the puppy and walked slowly to the van. Placed him in his carseat and buckled him up.
As I drove on to our next stop I thought a lot about what had happened. So many things could have gone terribly wrong in that moment. I am grateful for the angels that surround him every day.
I do not have an answer, I clearly have not done enough to create a safety plan that will actually keep him safe.

Please, if you are around us and you see Burrito out and away from us, please know he is NOT supposed to be there alone and has likely escaped our safety plan. Help us keep  him safe.