A story has been shared about a child who left home in pajamas while the parents were asleep and safely returned home with the help of citizens and the police.
On the 6th, Seoul Police's official YouTube channel uploaded a video titled "4-year-old child who left home while parents were asleep... Citizens and police step up to help." The video contains CCTV footage filmed in a residential area in Seoul on the 20th of last month.
In the approximately 1 minute and 20 seconds long video, a child is seen leaving the house alone while holding a teddy bear. The child, wandering the streets in pajamas, soon became frightened by the unfamiliar surroundings and started crying. A local resident passing by waited with the child for the guardian, but when no one came, the resident took the child's hand and headed to the police station.
The police asked the resident for detailed information about how the child was found and also asked the child for their name and age. However, the child did not answer most questions and only nodded, so no information other than the name could be obtained. The child was not registered in the 'Fingerprint Pre-registration' system, which is a system where fingerprints, photos, and guardian information of children under 14 or people with mental disabilities are pre-registered in the police system to be used in missing person cases.
While the control center tracked the child's movements through CCTV, the police began inquiries among local residents. During this process, the owner of a nearby snack bar offered to help and followed the police. Another officer walked around the area where the child was first found together with the child. While continuing the search, a control center operator fortunately found footage of the child leaving the house.
The police and the child headed straight home, and the father and child were finally reunited. The father, who was worried after the child disappeared, hugged the child and expressed his gratitude several times.
Netizens who heard the news responded with comments such as "In the end, it is people who make the world warm," "As a parent raising children, seeing kids lost like that doesn't feel like someone else's problem," "Fingerprint pre-registration seems essential for children," and "It must have been hot, but everyone worked hard."
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