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Police initially charged the mother, identified as Tori Grady, 29, with endangering the welfare of a child but the district attorney later declined to prosecute.

Four-year-old Chase was visiting his grandmother with his mom Wednesday.

Sources tell NY1 that Grady told police the boy was sleeping on the couch and a friend accidentally left the front door open.

"I woke up and my child wasn't there," Grady said. "So I did what any parent would do. I went straight to the police station."

The family said that Chase would've been able to reach the buttons to the elevator but the two doors leading to the outside would've been impossible for him to operate on his own. They said it's a heavy door and that a security button needs to be pushed to open the door. The family believes someone must have let him out.

"It was devastating," Grady said. "All I want to do is thank my neighborhood, 1833 and everything, for sticking up for me."

Chase was found walking alone on the sidewalk on Amsterdam Avenue near 151st Street in Hamilton Heights between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. Wednesday.

The boy was brought to a nearby deli but the counterperson did not know the boy.

"I give him some juice, I say 'no problem, don't worry, take it easy,'" the counterperson said. "After that, the superintendent bring him to the police because the police, it's very near from here."

A superintendent from a nearby building brought the child to a nearby police precinct.

"My dad told me that he was walking and he saw the little kid in the store and then he took him to the police," said the daughter of the superintendent.

Police say the boy was taken to a hospital but is OK.

"I don't know who let my child out of the building," Grady said. "I appreciate them taking him to the police station."