SOUTH BEND — A 1½-year-old toddler was found wandering alone in a city street Tuesday morning while her father was home sleeping, police said.

Police were called to Muessel Grove Park in the 1300 block of Vassar Avenue about 11:30 a.m. after a woman found the child walking there without any supervision.

The toddler was taken by Child Protective Services while police searched the northwest side neighborhoods looking for the girl’s family.

The father called police about 2 p.m. to report his daughter missing, said Capt. Phil Trent, a South Bend police spokesman. Police informed him the girl was found and in the custody of Child Protective Services.

He told police his daughter was asleep in a home he was watching for a relative, which is in the 1000 block of Lawndale Avenue, a couple of blocks from the park. He said his daughter must have woken and walked out the back door after he laid down for a nap.

The man said he was not familiar with the home’s child-proof features.

A Child Protective Services official went to the man’s home on the city’s southeast side, where it was discovered the house had child-proof features, Trent said.

The father was not arrested, although the child is being kept with Child Protective Services while the case is being investigated. The girl’s mother left for work at 9 a.m. and was not home at the time.

The girl was wearing shorts and a T-shirt, clothes police say were not suitable for the day’s unseasonably cool temperatures.