Orillia Boy Located After Amber Alert Issued

Concern in Orillia last night. OPP were contacted around 6pm when a resident saw what police called ‘an interaction’ between and man and a child near Bond and West Streets. The child eventually taken away in a vehicle. Unable to locate either party, or the vehicle involved, and worried it may have been an abduction police issued an Amber Alert around 10pm. It was lifted an hour later when the boy’s family heard the Alert and advised police the boy had run away from home and they had caught up with him at the intersection. There was a lot of chatter last night on social media about this, people complaining that their TV and radio shows were being interrupted by the new emergency alert system. The guidelines for issuing an Amber Alert are clear; what happened last night fell under those guidelines; the child was found safe; the system worked.