Autistic boy, 5, found wandering outside NYC laundromat while mom in custody for alleged home invasion

An autistic 5-year-old boy was found wandering alone barefoot outside a Queens laundromat — while his mother was in custody for a home invasion robbery, law enforcement sources and police said Wednesday.

Leshea Harris, 30, was facing a slew of charges after she allegedly abandoned her kids, including the little boy, to partake in a violent Brooklyn stick-up with an accomplice on Monday night, authorities said.

The 5-year-old was found outside the business 5:30 a.m. Tuesday. ABC7NY

The autistic boy, who is non-verbal and barefoot, was spotted outside the business at 25-15 Seagirt Blvd. in Far Rockaway by Lidia Rojas, 43, at around 5:30 a.m. Tuesday, according to sources.

“I was scared and worried, to see him alone out there without his parents,” Rojas recalled in Spanish on Wednesday. “I asked him, ‘Where are your parents?’ He just looked at me and smiled, and he just kept looking at me. He didn’t speak, didn’t say anything.”

Surveillance footage obtained by The Post showed the tot aimlessly running around near the business without shoes on before he encountered the worker as she was opening the laundromat.

The child only had on a white tank top and tan shorts as the woman ushered him inside the business.

The NYPD issued a plea to the public in search of his parents, leading a family friend to call authorities and direct them to an apartment on Beach Street, where they found another seven children, sources said.

The kids, between the ages of 8 and 11, told authorities they hadn’t seen Harris since the night before, at around 10 p.m. Monday, sources said.

When cops ran the mother’s name, they discovered Harris was a suspect in a home invasion in New Lots that happened at around 9:10 p.m., sources said.

Harris is accused of sneaking into an apartment unit through a window and then letting her alleged accomplice, identified as Amariah George, in through the front door, according to a criminal complaint.

The two alleged robbers then pummeled a woman inside the home as Harris even tried to deploy a Taser against the resident, the complaint states.

The boy is autistic and non-verbal. ABC7NY

The pair then ran off with a bag of clothing that sources estimated was worth about $50.

Sources said Harris was nabbed about an hour later in the area.

Harris and George were slapped with a laundry list of charges tied to the break-in, including first-degree burglary, first-degree robbery, third-degree assault and criminal possession of a weapon, according to Brooklyn prosecutors.

Harris was arraigned and granted supervised release by a judge despite prosecutors seeking bail, according to a spokesperson for the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office.

She’s also facing four counts of reckless endangerment and four counts of endangering the welfare of a child in Queens, sources said. 

“I have a lot of bad thoughts about what could’ve happened if I wasn’t there at that hour to grab the boy, a little boy who is defenseless,” said Rojas, the laundromat worker who found the boy. “I know he’s going to be okay, but a mother can’t leave a child alone like that. That’s careless.”

— Additional reporting by Jorge Fitz-Gibbon, Amanda Woods and Tina Moore