A 10-year-old runaway found walking along a Forsyth County road Tuesday night has been safely reunited with his family, authorities said.
But not before lying to Forsyth County Sheriff’s deputies about his name, his age — he’s actually 12 — and where he is from, officials said.
Deputy Doug Rainwater said a post of the child’s picture on the Sheriff’s office Facebook page helped unravel what was an elaborate escape and hoax and lead his Cobb County parents to him.
“A lot of the media outlets in Atlanta copied the picture and put it on their Facebook pages,” Rainwater said. “Someone from Cobb called us, said they knew the child, and said, ‘that’s not his name.’”
Deputies were called around 11 p.m. on Tuesday when a motorist reported seeing the boy walking along Ga. 9 in south Forsyth County near the Fulton County line.
“He was walking just kind of aimlessly,” Rainwater said. “It’s very dark along Highway 9.”
When deputies picked him up, the boy began to fib about who he was, where he was from, and how he got to Forsyth County so late at night.
“He told us that he was from New York, had only been here for two weeks, and that he lived down the street, but wasn’t sure which townhome,” Rainwater said. “He told us, ‘This was area in which I live, but I’m not sure which subdivision.’”
Deputies drove the youth around through the evening, authorities said, even involving police from neighboring Milton, showing him different neighborhoods to see if they jogged his memory, authorities said.
But no “home” could be found, Rainwater said.
By morning, authorities turned to social media for help.
That’s when a response revealed the truth.
“We ran his (real) name, and it came back a runaway juvenile from Cobb,” Rainwater said Wednesday afternoon. “Yesterday at 7 p.m. is when he left his house in Cobb. His mother reported him at 7:30 p.m. to Cobb police.”
The youth’s parents drove to Forsyth County to retrieve their child, and the true story of the 12-year-old’s misadventures unfolded to deputies interviewing the family.
The boy left his Cobb home near Dalk Road under the threat of punishment from his parents, Rainwater said.
“Supposedly, whenever the parents try to discipline the child, he runs away,” he said. “This was his third time in two years.”
The boy found a landscaping truck at a gas station not far from his his house and hid beneath a tarp in the back of the trailer the truck was pulling, unseen by the driver and passengers, authorities said.
The next stop for the truck was Ga. 9 at the Fulton-Forsyth border — roughly 30 miles away — where several workers were dropped off, Rainwater said.
“That’s where the truck stopped, so that’s where he decided to exit the trailer,” Rainwater said of the boy.
And that’s where deputies found him.
No charges will be filed against the youth or his parents in Forsyth County, and Cobb County police, reached late Wednesday afternoon, had no record of charges against the family.
Rainwater said the boy went home with his parents, and said deputies were relieved that the story the boy told them wasn’t true.
“Initially, because no one reported this child to our knowledge, we really thought something bad had taken place at the child’s home to the point where no one could call,” he said. “So we were somewhat relieved that, yes, the parents did make a police report in Cobb, and the parents were there to pick up the child.”
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