A woman who led a two-year-old boy to the front door of a stranger's home before pressing the bell and running away has been identified by police.
A doorbell camera captured the moment the tattooed woman abandoned the boy in Spring, Texas, on Wednesday.
A woman answered the door and found the child – who she says she had never seen before – and two bags, Montgomery County Sheriffs Office said.
A second short video, recorded from a higher angle, shows the woman getting out and returning to a white car idling at the bottom of the house's driveway.
This video shows the child being lifted into the air by his arm for several metres by the woman as she hurries up to the front door.
"The child is uninjured and appears to be in good health," the sheriff's office said.
The woman in the video could could face charges of felony child endangerment.
Police canvassed the local area in an attempt to find someone who knew the child but were unsuccessful and the child was taken into protection.
The following morning, the boy's father was located and interviewed by detectives.
Officers were told the father understood the boy was going to be dropped off at his home by a friend of the boy's mother, who was in hospital.
When the boy did not show up at his house, the father assumed the mother had changed the plans.
"The suspect in the video dropped the child off after the father had left his residence and at the wrong residence," police said in a statement.
"The female in the video then left [the] location without verifying anyone was home or who she was releasing the child to."
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The boy had been dropped off at a house next door to the father's home.
The child is still in protection but efforts are underway to reunite him with his family.
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