Friday was a good day
Thanks to CodeRed alert, 4-year-old is home safe
united Friday afternoon thanks to CodeRed, the networked communication system employed by Anderson County Emergency Services, Clinton Police, and numerous emergency services in East Tennessee.
While it’s a picturesque scenario when a boy walks in the woods with the family dog, last Friday’s events were anything but.
A four-year-old boy was last seen outside of a Hinds Creek home playing with the family dog.
The time the youth went outside with the dog was not listed on the Anderson County Sheriff’s Office incident report, but shorty before 11 a.m. the ACSO was called because the boy was missing.
An “intensive search” was launched.
Along with the Anderson County Sheriff’s Office, personnel from the Andersonville Fire Department, Norris Fire Department, Clinton Fire Department, Clinton Police Department, Anderson County Rescue Squad, The Claxton Fire Department, Anderson County Emergency Management, and Anderson County EMS came to the scene and assisted in the search both on foot and by us ing ATVs.
K-9 units from Anderson County and Blount County responded, as did a Knox County Sheriff’s Office Airwatch helicopter.
But it was a CodeRed alert sent out by the ACSO that wound up saving the day.
A man on Hickory Valley Road heard a knock at his door and answered.
When he opened the door there stood a young boy with a dog. The boy had some scratches and some dirt, but otherwise looked like any other child who might be playing in the woods.
But the man had received a CodeRed notification and knew a four-year-old child had been reported missing.
Deputies and emergency services personnel went to the man’s home. The four-year-old, apparently looking like any four-year-old who spends the day in the woods (without wondering too far from home), was checked out and sent home.
It was a good day.
“Our thanks to the many emergency responders from law enforcement, fire, rescue, and EMS who came to assist in the search,” Anderson County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Mark Lucas said.
The families involved were not identified in the reports.