This was my day:

Yes, I lost my 7 year old son today . . . He has autism and he has wandered away in the past.

We now have locks on all the doors and windows . . . .

I looked all around the house for him and noticed that I left the garage door unlocked (double sides deadbolt - unlocked) . My heart dropped!

I went into a panic when Scottie was missing and me and my other son (10 years old) could not find him. I started driving around the area looking for him in my car . . .

I went into shock I think - I could not find him - so I call 911.

Still in complete shock that my little boy is missing I am talking to the 911 operator telling them what he is wearing, how old he is and what color is his hair, ect . . I think I was in total shock just saying these words . . It's hard to answer - What was he wearing the last time you saw him? - Because you start thinking ---Last time ---

Somehow I had really bad cell phone connection and got disconnected from 911 ( which I thought was impossible but it happended!) . . . .

WELL . . . at this time my hubby calls me from home and why are you looking for Scottie, he is here at home!

Still in shock - I find out Scottie unlocked the master bedroom locked door & crawled into bed with his Dad who works graveyard shift and Scotttie is at home . . .

I am still in shock about thinking that he was missing . . . but I feel stupid because he wasn't really missing . .


Well . . . that was my day . . .

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Mommy to three wonderful boys, Justin (11), Nicholas (9) and Scottie (8)

Sorry you had a rough day. I am happy that he is ok

I'm so sorry, and completely feel your pain! We lost our two year old once - no autism involved, but DH and I were talking and suddenly he had disappeared from the room. DH played back our conversation in his mind and said, "You know, I think I heard the door squeak while we were talking and expected someone to walk in or say 'hey!" but they never did..." and from that minute on we were combing the neighborhood, calling the neighbors who were checking swimming pools for us and.... it was awful. I'd been through our house five times top to bottom and there was no sign of him. I called the police who came immediately and were going through the house with me as I was frantic.

They made me show them every closet. We got to our bedroom, opened the door, and I swooshed my hand through my clothes to show him there was nobody in there and when I came to my wedding dress bag, my hand stopped dead.

It had a big slit in it, and DS had crawled right into the bag! He had realized he was in trouble for having gone out the back door and gotten the keys out of the car, which was in the driveway (DH and I were in the midst of trying to get on the road to pick up our other two kids who were on a trip out of town, and were coming and going from the house to the car for about a five minute span, which is when DS toddled outside, snagged the keys from the ignition and then toddled back into the house... which of course sent us both into alarm state and we were discussing how not to let THAT happen again when he overheard us and realized he had messed up big time and went into hiding in my closet....! Life is SO much easier now that they are all verbal and practically driving! lol!)

Anyway... it was the worst 25 minutes of my parenting career practically (or at least ranks right up there!) so you have both my empathy and sympathy. You think you're living in normalcy and suddenly get smacked up the head with the whole "all it takes is a second of inattention" thing and you feel like a failure as a mom. What good mom lets something like that happen!!??

I'm so very sorry you had to go through that horrible, scary event, and so thankful for you that it turned out just fine.

So glad your son was okay!

I totally can understand what you went through! It is SO scary when you think that one of your children might be missing. You feel so helpless!

Thats so scary, I'm glad he was home and ok.

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Proud mom to 4 great boys Anthony20,Nicholas16,Michael4,Sean2

How horrifying. I'm so glad to hear that he was at home and safe.

I'm sorry you had to go through that. You may want to think about getting him a medical alert bracelet. That way if he wanders off again if someone finds them they call the number on it and medic alert will call you (thus reunited).

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I've never lied to you. I've always told you some version the of truth.

Dont feel stupid ...there has been a time or two in my twenty years of parenting when I couldnt find my kids for a few minutes, and once my oldest ds when we were on a crowded beach for about 15 minutes. He was right behnd us, and all of a sudden he was gone. He went to a life guard, and was sitting up there with him drinking from his waterbottle. It is the worst, scariest thing in the world. You feel so helpless, afraid and have a heavy bad stomach feeling.
I am so grateful your son was safe all along.

You did everything right and I am so glad this story has a happy ending.

Thank goodness your son is safe. All is well. Take a few good deep breaths now.

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We're off to never never land

That's so scary! I'm glad he's ok.

I lost my daughter when she was about 2 years old on Cocoa Beach in Florida. It was only a couple minutes, but it was enough time for your heart to jump to your throat, to start to panic and to imagine every possible thing that could have happened to her. She was right where she was supposed to be. DH was swimming with oldest dd and he could see her - I just couldn't. It was horrible!

Lisa

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"It's not having what you want,
It's wanting what you've got"

I have an autistic son who is now almost 13 yrs old (where have the years gone-- can't believe it). Anyway, when he was about 4 yrs old, he somehow got out of the house, which was a challenge since we literally locked ourselves in the house. He was only gone about 5 minutes before we noticed, but enough time for him to escape. We literally were running round in circles and calling neighbors to help find him. Almost out of the blue, a man rounds the corner of our subdivision holding my sons hand and my son was non-verbal at the time, so my son could not have told him where he lived. To this day, we call that anonimous man his guardian angel.



Very traumatic and scary, I know cause I've been there.

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I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it!

I had an experience very similar to the OP's, but it involved my husband. He had gone out to play cards with his friends one night, while I was home with the kids. About 3AM I woke up and he was not home.
I called the friend that he was with and was told that he had left hours ago. His dad was the magistrate of the town, and while I checked all of the local hospitals, he checked with the police to see if there had been any accidents that evening. He was nowhere to be found. After a few more frantic phone calls, in walks my DH. When he had gotten home hours earlier, our baby son was crying, so he went and slept on the spare bed in the baby's room. When I told him what was going on, he said, "Didn't you think to look for my truck in the garage" Funny now, but not so at the time.

OP do you have Project Lifesaver in your area? Its a wonderful program and highly reccommended for children with Autism, its a radio transmitter that they put on their leg or arm and it stays on 24/7 and when they go missing the local Sheriff or Police activate it and can find the child quickly they use it for Alzheimer patients too. My friend has/had it for her two boys and has recently moved to an area without it but is the Unpaid Liason for Project Lifesaver and trying to start up a program in her area with grants and such it is literally a lifesaver and piece of mind.

I am so sorry you had to go through all that I know the feeling all too well I lost Stefan once in a store and I lost one of my other kids 20 years ago when he circumvented all the safety devices we had, it gets your heart going for sure.

{{{{{HUGS}}}}}

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~ Christine ~
Grammie to Trinity Lorayne Jean Keens Born June 9, 2011 Loving my awesome guitar picking 100% Country Boy boyfriend Kenny !
RIP Daddy~ 01/24/1930-06/01/2007 I miss you !
Dont Think you Can .. know you can ~ Jeff Hardy

Ooh, your first sentence made my heart stop. I thought the worst. Glad he was safe and snug with dad the whole time, but I can appreciate the panic you were feeling. I "lost" DS2 when he was about 3. I had several neighbors looking with me. Someone told me, go check your house again, we'll keep looking out here. I did. For whatever reason, he had crawled UNDER my bed and fell asleep.

I am glad your son and you are ok!!!

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The times when you have seen only one set of footprints in the sand, is when I carried you - Mary Stevenson

How horrible that must have been!

I had to skim all the way to the end of your post before I read - just to know how it turned out. So scary!

I hope you sleep well!

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"The errors of faith are better than the best thoughts of unbelief." - Thomas Russell