Toddler crept out of his crib and walked to local McDonald's because he was hungry

I'm sure we've all experienced a McDonald's craving that's been just too hard to resist, and that's apparently what one three-year-old was going through when he decided to escape his crib and walk to the nearby restaurant.

Mom, Marissa Phiffer, experienced every parent's worst nightmare when she woke up from taking a nap with her three-year-old twins, Aiden and Aleiya, to find that Aiden was nowhere to be found.

Phiffer told Today she was sleeping 'on the floor right next to their cribs', so only became more and more confused when she realised that Aiden was nowhere in their Wisconsin home.

She recalled the ordeal in a now-viral TikTok video, explaining: "He was not in the basement. He was not in the front yard or the backyard. He was not around the block."

Phiffer asked Aleiya where her brother had gone, and was horrified when she responded to say he'd 'gone outside'.

“I really started to get nervous when he wasn’t in our neighbor’s yard," Phiffer told Today. "I thought that’s where I’d find him. They have a bunch of rocks and he likes to line them up and play with them."

The mom quickly dialled 911 to report a missing child, and was grateful when the police arrived in 'two seconds'.

The officers came with a photograph to show Phiffer, and to her relief it was a picture of Aiden, safe and sound.

It turns out that after Aiden woke up from his nap, had a craving for some fast-food and decided to put his shoes on, sneak past his mom and leave the house.

Warning: Contains explicit language:

A concerned stranger alerted authorities when they spotted Aiden by himself, on a mission to get himself a tasty snack from the McDonald's across the street from his family's home.

Phiffer quickly went to the McDonald's and ran inside, where she was met with Aiden saying: "Hi, Mom!"

When Phiffer asked Aiden why he'd wandered off on his own, his explanation was simple: "I was hungry."

The mom acknowledged her son could eat 'fries, nuggets and apple slices' every day if he could, and she almost caved and bought him a Happy Meal after finding him safe and sound, but she was 'embarrassed' and 'just wanted to get out of there'.

Having learned how determined Aiden can be when he's hungry, Phiffer has now installed child proof safety locks and latches on the doors so that he hopefully won't be able to escape when a craving hits.