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This article was published 30/5/2013 (2666 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Six young children were forced to fend for themselves for at least an hour this week after a Winnipeg daycare provider left her own home.

The 33-year-old woman faces child-abandonment charges in what police say might be the first case of its kind in the city. No explanation was provided for her alleged actions, other than to say her reasons weren't legitimate, such as leaving for a medical emergency.

"This was a very unique situation," Winnipeg police Det.-Sgt. Natalie Aitken said Thursday. "The specifics are not something I want to go into."

Police said the incident could have had tragic consequences, especially since the children were between the ages of one and five.

A parent went to the St. Vital-area home around 2 p.m. Tuesday, earlier than expected, to discover her child, along with the five others, were without adult supervision. She entered the unlocked house and found the children, who were fine.

"Numerous knocks at the residence met with no response," said Aitken.

The daycare provider didn't return home until later in the afternoon, after police had arrived.

Police are still speaking to the children and parents to determine how long they were alone.

"It's going to prove difficult to determine from them (because of their ages). At this time we're not really sure," said Aitken.

There are thousands of home-based private daycares operating in the city because licensed spaces are limited. Those who run such facilities aren't subject to the same child-abuse and criminal-background checks or screening, nor are they mandated to have medical training.

Aitken said Thursday this particular business is "no longer operational" given this incident.

The woman was released on a promise to appear at a future date, meaning her name hasn't been made public because the charges weren't officially laid. Aitken wouldn't say if the woman is the mother of any of the six abandoned children.

Home-based daycare providers are often parents themselves.

If the Crown proceeds by indictment, the maximum sentence for child abandonment is five years in prison. If it proceeds by summary conviction, the maximum sentence is 18 months behind bars.

There have been a handful of child-abandonment cases in recent Winnipeg history.

A Winnipeg man was sentenced to one year in jail earlier this year for abandoning his two young children on a North End street on a cold, rainy day last October.

The 24-year-old admitted he was angry at the children's mother for leaving him alone with them to go out partying. He responded by going to a Manitoba Avenue house he thought the mother and her friends were at and left them on the front step. He never confirmed anyone was home.

His 20-month-old daughter became hysterical after he left them alone, running down the sidewalk in tears screaming "Daddy, Daddy," said neighbours who called police. Her six-week-old sister remained in her car seat wearing only a light sleeper.

In another case, a Winnipeg mom was given two years of probation after she admitted fleeing the scene of a drunken car crash and leaving her five-year-old daughter in the damaged vehicle.

The 33-year-old had a blood-alcohol level of .170, more than double the legal limit, when she sideswiped another vehicle at the corner of Banning Street and Ellice Avenue, then struck a fence during the mid-morning crash in March 2010.

Her daughter and two-year-old son were in the back seat but were not restrained with seatbelts or car seats, court was told.

Both suffered minor injuries. The woman grabbed her son and fled, leaving the little girl behind, to the shock of several bystanders who pleaded with her to stay. Police identified the woman through her vehicle registration and found her less than a half-hour later, passed out inside her home about half a block from the crash.

www.mikeoncrime.com