Here's a great idea, leave an 8 y.o. home alone, in charge of 4 dogs, near busy street! Vent!

Do you know for sure he was home alone?

Because if so I know I would call the police. I thought kids have to be 13-14 to be left alone. I might be mistaken but I know there is no way my parents left me alone at 8 years old and no way am I gonna let Samantha home alone when she's 8. 

As I was reading I thought, gee maybe she should leave a note!  I want to believe, I really want to believe, that the boy went against parents orders, and he let all the dogs out at once, or something went haywire along the line.  Parents downstairs, doing laundry, anything.

As a parent I find it hard to misplace one child "It's too quiet, where is....." To have four dogs and an 8 year old boy, I would be interested in finding out if you find anything out, don't think that fast three times;-)

I'm glad no one was injured. As the above poster said, here it's 12, the law states you can leave a 12 year old alone, doesn't mean their ready but you can....

I heard it was 12 here too. But I dont think I could/would leave Samantha home alone at 12. I live in a pretty small safe town but.....stuff can aways happen especially when you dont expect it. 

In VA (at least what cops have told me) there's no specific age, it's context specific.  Like if he was left alone overnight, etc.  but alone during the daytime when mom runs to the store, probably not something the cops would care about.  When he was trying to corral the dogs, I asked if he could get someone from inside to help him and he said "No, nobody's home."  I think I will write a note highlighting the danger to the dogs and kid if they bolted out to the road and he tried to chase them, we have horrible teen and young adult drivers who drag on that road about 50+mph on a routine basis.  I'll also mention the danger to the doxies of being injured by a reactive dog.  There's a woman here who walks 3 large dogs and one of them is a 100+ lb. rottie that she acknowledges is reactive, she moves WAY into the woods when passing anyone and wears heavy leather gloves to hold onto the leash when walking them.  That dog and a loose doxie is a recipe for a dead doxie.   

You're right chances are the police won't give too much thought if the parent ran to the store for a moment. 

I think leaving the note is a great idea, this is an accident waiting to happen.  The police may not care on a short note, but I'm willing to bet, if there was a fire, the boy got hit by a car, especially while trying to take care of four dogs alone, the mother would be charged with neglect.

I won't leave my child alone either, we live in a safe area, but again, you NEVER know, I don't want my child being one of those incidents ending up on the news "Child dead, mother charged with."

Thats why I carry pepper spray when my wife and I go walking with her guide dog, Roanna. She has been attacked 4 times in the last 2 years, all stopped by pepper spray.