The child remembered only his first name, that he was three years old, and that he had travelled a long way.. Photo credit: Freepik (illustrative photo).
Brno, Jan 30 (BD) – On Friday, 27 January, the Brno city police managed to return a little boy lost on a Brno trolleybus back to his family, despite having almost no information to go on.
The driver of a trolleybus called 156 to report the missing child. The driver had noticed him from the moment he got on the bus and sat silently behind him, but did not realise the child was unaccompanied until the end of the bus route at Jírova. The police approached the child, asking him his name, last name, parent’s name and the street where they lived. The child remembered only his first name and none of the other information, except that he was three years old and had travelled a long way.
With no reports of a missing child, the police proceeded to drive the child in a police car along the route of the trolleybus. After nearly five kilometres, the child recognized the stop where he got on. The officers then walked the street with him until he pointed at the apartment building he had left. Encouraged by the police officers, the boy went through the door, got into the elevator and pressed one of the buttons, before leading the officers to the door of his aunt’s apartment.
The boy’s aunt was looking after him for his mother, but he had escaped unnoticed from her apartment while she was dressing her young daughter. She told officers she had been looking for him intensively outside and had just returned home when the officers rang the bell. The officers checked her personal details and forwarded the case to Social Services, as well as to administrative proceedings due to a possible violation of the Social-Legal Protection of Children Act.
The police department recommends that parents prepare their children for the situation that they may get lost or otherwise end up alone in public. If they can remember the answers to basic questions such as “Which street do you live in?” “What is your last name?”, “What is your parent’s name?” “What is the name of your kindergarten?”, emergency services will be able to help return them more quickly.
