A BENDIGO toddler has been reunited with his father after an adventurous morning walking the streets of Spring Gully.
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Bendigo police Leading Senior Constable Sally Dunlop said the child and his dad were watching cartoons in bed about 6am when the father fell back asleep.
She said the boy got out of bed, grabbed his backpack and a packet of popcorn and somehow managed to unlatch a gate to the street.
A cyclist found the boy, who is about to turn three, around the corner from his home a short time later and alerted police.
Leading Senior Constable Dunlop said officers door-knocked the area but were unable to locate the child's parents.
"In the meantime, the dad woke up in a panic, couldn't find his child and when to a neighbour's house who had kids, thinking the the little boy might have been attracted to the sound of children playing," she said.
She said the neighbours, who didn't realise the man had a son, told him the child was at the police station.
Leading Senior Constable Dunlop said it was a fortunate ending to the boy's cheeky escapade.
"The little fella's had an adventurous morning," she said.
"It's much better for us to have a kid in custody and can't find the parent, rather than have the parent in custody and can't find the kids."