Waukegan mom chases 3-year-old off train with infant still aboard

Do you get off a stopped Metra train and leave your 10-month-old baby behind to chase after your 3-year-old child who jumped off by mistake?

Or, do you stay with the stroller-bound baby while your 3-year-old is alone at the wrong station?

Police said a Waukegan woman will not be charged after she faced that dilemma on a Union Pacific North Line Metra train during a busy rush-hour commute Tuesday evening.

"She made the quick decision to jump off the train to chase the first child," Waukegan Police Lt. Ed Fitzgerald said of the unidentified mother, who was happily reunited with her baby thanks to a fellow passenger and police.

The drama unfolded as the train carrying the woman and her two children approached the North Chicago station. When the doors opened to let passengers off, the toddler pulled away from his mother, hopped off the train and scampered away.

The family was not supposed to get off until the next stop in Waukegan, Fitzgerald said.

When the 3-year-old bolted, the woman got off the train to chase him down. As she did, she yelled back to another passenger to pull the stroller-bound baby off the train for her, Fitzgerald said.

However, due to the loud train engine, the passenger didn't hear the woman. Just as the mom corralled the 3-year-old, the doors closed and the train headed to Waukegan.

"She chased the train as much as she could, but couldn't get it to stop," Fitzgerald said. "Then, the passenger she called out to for help realized what had happened after the train was leaving and drove her to Waukegan."

The mother and passenger called North Chicago police, who phoned Waukegan police and asked that the train be stopped.

"By the time everyone had arrived, the conductor was in custody of the child and was waiting for the police and the mother to arrive," Fitzgerald said.

The mother was reunited with the unharmed baby at the Waukegan train stop at about 6:35 p.m., Fitzgerald said, adding the mother did not intentionally leave a baby on the train.

"She went after the one child and called for help with the second child," he said. "But no one heard her."