DATE: Wednesday, August 27, 1997            TAG: 9708270507

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY SUSIE STOUGHTON, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: SUFFOLK                           LENGTH:   47 lines

TOT TAKES LATE-NIGHT WALKABOUT

Two-year-old Steven E. Wyatt picked a terrifying time Tuesday to explore his new neighborhood.

Sometime shortly before 4 a.m., the tow-headed toddler climbed from the water bed where he was sleeping with his mother, turned the doorknob and slipped outside into the darkness.

A few blocks away, clad only in a diaper and tank top, he was discovered by an unsuspecting traveler on his way to work.

Linwood Sills was driving along rural Desert Road en route to Newport News Shipbuilding when he came upon Steven. Sills said he was driving cautiously, watching for deer, on the oft-fog-shrouded stretch near the Great Dismal Swamp, when he stopped suddenly. The youngster, he said, happily came to him.

Neither a newspaper carrier nor a man on his way to work knew the tot, so Sills put him in his Explorer, drove to his Corapeake, N.C., home a few miles away and called police.

Two officers met him where the child had been found, and they started knocking on doors.

Before they found the right house, Carla L. Wyatt was frantically calling police to report that her only child was gone. They were reunited at police headquarters.

Carla Wyatt explained that they had moved into the house five days earlier from another city, where they lived next to an interstate.

``It sounds strange,'' she said Tuesday, ``but I'm glad it happened here, if it had to happen.''

Steven, who loves to play outside with his ball and tricycle, had been tugging at the door knobs all day Monday, Carla Wyatt said.

``We've spent the day putting locks on all the doors that require a key on the inside,'' she said.

Steven was oblivious to the repairs, slumbering on his side in the middle of the living room floor.

``He's sleeping now,'' his mother said, ``because he got up early.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo

JOHN H. SHEALLY II/The Virginian-Pilot

Steven E. Wyatt, 2, catches up on his sleep after wandering out of

his Suffolk home Tuesday morning. His mother and grandfather were

upgrading their door locks later. KEYWORDS: MISSING CHILD

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