As a parent, what would you do if you realized that you had no idea where your child was? For Kelly, this thought became a reality when her 14-year-old son didn’t return home after a sleepover at a nearby friend’s house.
Going Missing
Like most people in her neighborhood, Kelly and her four children have been safely quarantining at home during the coronavirus pandemic. They had only just moved into the neighborhood three months ago. Wanting to alleviate the stress of staying inside, she allowed her 14-year-old son to sleep over at a nearby friend’s house for the first time, with the explicit instructions of staying indoors and returning home immediately in the morning. Since her son didn’t have a cell phone, Kelly also relayed the same message to her son’s friend and his mother.
The next morning, Kelly woke up and realized that her son hadn’t returned home yet. She texted the friend’s mother but didn’t receive any responses. After three attempts of trying to reach the mother through text, Kelly decided to call. Upon calling and getting sent to voicemail, Kelly realized that the number that she had wasn’t actually for the mother, but for the friend’s young teenage sister. Kelly left a voicemail message but still didn’t get a reply back. She decided to go to the friend’s house and realized that nobody was home, which caused her to raise an eyebrow but decided to drive to her son’s school since he frequently played basketball there. Although Kelly had asked him to come back home that morning, she knew that he was still a young teenage boy, so he might have not listened to her. Her worries began to truly skyrocket though when she realized that he wasn’t at the school either.
Who's Calling Me?
Search any phone number to learn more about the owner!
Kelly spent the next few hours searching and even asked her family and neighbors to help find her missing son. Having no luck banging on the doors and windows of the house he was supposed to be at, and no luck with driving around searching for him, Kelly went into absolute panic mode.
“My son is 14-years-old, and he’s a big kid – almost six feet tall. However, in that moment, it didn’t matter how tall or old he was – I didn’t know where my child was. I had not known for hours and I was literally losing my mind.”
Kelly thought about calling the police but she didn’t want to tie up emergency services, especially during the pandemic. She was still trying to figure out how to get a hold of the friend’s mother when she decided to go on her phone and Google “Who lives at [the friend’s address]”. Kelly’s search led her to Spokeo, she immediately found contact information for the friend’s father, and she called him and left a voicemail. He called Kelly back and explained that the friend’s mother was his ex-wife, but he reached out and told her to return home immediately.
“Had it not been for Spokeo, we would have called the police. Had it not been for Spokeo, this would have been a huge ordeal.”
Safe And Sound
Within 13 minutes, her son, along with the friend and his mother, was back home. Kelly was furious and expressed her frustration with the mother. After asking for answers, the mother explained that they had gone to a couple of stores and took longer than expected. While Kelly was upset, she was mainly just happy and relieved that her son was back with her, safe and sound. However, needless to say, Kelly will be keeping an even closer watch on her son and will be more selective on the company he keeps.
“I am so grateful for your website and how well and quickly it worked. It’s user-friendly and was not incredibly expensive. I am so grateful – even now, it’s been two days and I still get choked up thinking about how I felt for those 3 hours. Thank you Spokeo and everybody that works there. I am just beyond grateful that I had that option and that your site worked so well!”
If you ever find yourself in a similar situation, or just want to find out information about your neighbors after moving into a new neighborhood, try performing a reverse address search – you never know what helpful information you can find!