Police in Abbotsford are thanking the public for their help in locating a 12-year-old boy who was missing overnight Saturday.
According to police, the boy went missing sometime between 3:30 p.m. - when his mother dropped him off near the skate park in the 3100 block of Clearbrook Road - and 5:30 p.m., when she returned to pick him up and found he was not there.
Attempts to contact the boy overnight on Saturday were unsuccessful, police said.
He was located Sunday morning by a passerby who had seen reports about him going missing on social media. The bystander notified police, who were able to locate him shortly before noon.
Abbotsford police Sgt. Judy Bird said the department was grateful to the public for its help in locating the child. She said the department’s Facebook post about the missing boy had been shared more than 11,000 times in the 11 hours since it was posted, reaching more than 225,000 people - a number larger than the population of Abbotsford.
As of early Sunday afternoon, Bird was unable to confirm details of where the boy was located or what had happened to him overnight. She said police detectives, patrol officers, and canine units had all been involved in the search.
