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Family Finds Missing Teen With Help From Neighbors App By Ring
"If we hadn't posted [that my son was missing], I really don't know what would've happened," says the boy's mom.
As a parent, few things are more frightening than your child going missing. So when Candice and Charles couldn't find their 14-year-old son Gilbert after a recent move to Albuquerque, New Mexico, they were understandably worried.
It all started when Gilbert asked his parents if he could go to a football game with a friend. "My husband dropped him off," Candice said, "but a few minutes later — I guess his friend didn't end up showing up — so he [called and] asked if he could walk to a gas station that was right across the street [instead of staying at the game alone]."
Candice and Charles told Gilbert that was fine and agreed to pick him up at the gas station. "Gilbert told my husband [which] gas station he was going to be at," Candice said, "but when we got there, he wasn't there."
Unfamiliar with the area, Gilbert had actually gone to a gas station about 15 minutes away from the one where he told his parents he would be. Candice tried calling his cell phone, but its battery had died. Gilbert didn't have his parents' phone numbers memorized and, still being new to Albuquerque, he didn't remember the family's new address.
Candice and Charles began searching the area around the gas station where they thought he would be as well as the football field. "We went to all these stores and showed them a picture we had of [Gilbert]," Candice said. "No one had seen him, and so we ended up calling the police and letting them know that we couldn't find him …. We were pretty worried."
The police told Candice and Charles they would search for Gilbert, but that wasn't enough to ease the parents' fears. "At this point, it had already been like three or four hours that we couldn't find him," Candice recalled. "After that, it was starting to get dark, and I was starting to panic … because it's not like him to do anything like this."
It was around 7:30 p.m. when Candice remembered she had Neighbors by Ring, a free app that provides real-time crime and safety alerts. "I posted the picture we had [of Gilbert] and I said, 'This is my son …. He's been missing — at that point, for about six hours — and this is what he's wearing …. If you see him, call me,'" she said.
Thirty minutes later, Candice got a call from a man who'd found Gilbert. The man told Candice where they were and waited with Gilbert until she and Charles could get there.
"When I finally arrived, the man was parked next to [Gilbert]," Candice said. "He told me he'd seen [my post] on the app, and I was like, 'Thank God!' Because if we hadn't posted it, I really don't know what would've happened."
Candice and Charles were greatly relieved to be reunited with Gilbert. They were also incredibly grateful to the man who spotted their son and responded to their post on the Neighbors by Ring app.
"This app can be really helpful, and I think it's a great resource," Candice said.
Ring is on a mission to make neighborhoods safer, and part of that is helping reunite missing children with their families. That's why Ring recently partnered with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC).
Throughout the partnership, NCMEC missing-child posters will be visible directly in the Neighbors by Ring app to users whose defined neighborhoods fall within the area of interest. These posts will prompt users to contact the proper authorities if they have any information that could help in the search for the missing child.
