MUNCIE, Ind. – City police on Tuesday investigating a report of two boys, ages 7 and 4, being left home alone said they found the youngsters watching “Home Alone” on television.

That 1990 film featured the adventures of an 8-year-old, portrayed by Macaulay Culkin, after he was accidentally left behind when his family took a Christmas vacation to Paris.

Investigators said the circumstances leading to the Muncie boys being left home alone Tuesday did not involve an accident.

The boy’s mother – 25-year-old Taylor Joann Cumings – allegedly kept the older child home from school to watch his younger brother, who was under the weather, when she went to her job at the Youth Opportunity Center.

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Police went to the family’s South Franklin Street home about 12:45 p.m. after dispatchers received an anonymous tip about the youngsters.

“Home Alone” featured Culkin’s efforts to ward off two would-be house burglars. The Muncie boys were also frightened when adults showed up at their home, although the visitors were police officers, not moronic criminals.

When an officer knocked on the house’s door, the older child looked through blinds and exclaimed, “It’s the police!”

He then ran to a telephone and called his aunt, reporting officers were outside and he was scared.

The aunt quickly arrived and persuaded the boys to open the front door. The officer presented the youngsters with toys he had in his police car.

Later, Cumings arrived home. She said she had been at her job since 7 a.m., and after being unable to find a babysitter, decided “to have (the older child) stay home from school and watch (his younger brother).”

The mother said “she had done it before but almost always stays with her children or has a babysitter," an officer wrote.

Cumings was arrested – outside the view of her children – on a preliminary count of neglect of a dependent. She remained in the Delaware County jail on Wednesday under a $10,000 bond.

A Department of Child Services official said the boys could remain in their home under the care of their aunt.

Douglas Walker is a news reporter at The Star Press. Contact him at 765-213-5851 or at dwalker@muncie.gannett.com.