Officers believe the child was alone most of the night, or all night long.
According to neighbors and a PGW crew working nearby, emergency responders rammed a door to an upstairs apartment.
Inside, police say they found the three-year-old boy all alone.
"He was petrified, scared. He ran right into the officer's arms. He picked him up," said neighbor Makhi McFall.
"He looked disoriented, scared, just relieved that somebody was holding his hand," said PGW worker Wanda Peluyera.
The little boy, who will turn 4 in May, was taken to St. Christopher's where he was found to be unhurt.
McFall says she talked to the boy's mom by phone, but was unable to convince her to come home. She adds, the boy is a great kid.
"Well, I babysit him for her when she was working, I have him all the time. I guess sometimes she needs to go out and she leaves him by himself," McFall said.
Special Victims Unit investigators are assigned to the case. The mother is now refusuing to talk to police, saying she has a laywer.
McFall is conflicted about her 22-year-old neighbor.
"Mom's a good mom. She's a model, I think she's trying to make some kind of future in modelling. She just don't think," McFall said. "I'm upset she didn't ask nobody. Now he is without his mom, and she is in trouble."
The SVU intends to get a warrant for the mother's arrest.
The little boy is in the care of the DHS.
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