The wanted eight-year-old boy was seen by women in the fog by the road when they were returning from work

She received a message on her phone from a friend about the search for a missing eight-year-old child. Fortunately, the message came together with his photo. And then things happened as if from a fairy tale. Only two seconds had passed since the women in the car saw the photo of the missing person on their phone when they saw a small child wearing a purple jacket by the side of the road. The same as they just saw in the photo.

“It was already night, quite dry, about only twelve degrees and it was raining,” 26-year-old Aneta Dušková from Hranice u Aša in Chebská described the unpleasant weather at the end of summer. “We recognized him by the purple jacket he was wearing in the picture,” she continued. The boy was standing by the road.

They immediately stopped, but the boy did not respond to them. “He was terribly afraid and did not answer at all,” the woman recalled. “Finally, we took him into the car, told him a fairy tale and called the police,” added the young rescuer. Thanks to their prompt actions, the missing boy was able to be happily reunited with his loved ones shortly afterwards.

This story took place in the middle of September in the Štítary settlement, which falls under the municipality of Krásná, one of the westernmost municipalities in the republic. An eight-year-old boy disappeared from the farm where he was with his grandfather. He searched for her unsuccessfully for more than an hour before reporting the desperate situation to the police.

Police patrols, including a police dog handler with a service dog, were immediately dispatched to the scene. More than a hundred policemen, firefighters, volunteers, a drone and a police helicopter were involved in the extensive search operation. The search for the missing boy was announced in the media as part of the National Coordination Mechanism as a Child in Danger. A number of media were involved in the search, and the information was also spread through social networks.

Thanks to a shared message on the social network, Aneta Dušková noticed the missing boy. For this help, a woman from Hranice u Aš received an award called Lost Forgetfulness. The aim of this joint project of Slavia pojišťovna and the Police of the Czech Republic is to motivate people to help each other, empathize and be mindful. Awards will be given to those who are not indifferent to the problems of others. They get a lost forgetfulness for helping to find a missing person.

“The public’s help is invaluable to us,” commented Jiří Matouš, the Karlovy Vary regional deputy police director for the external service.