"It's Pink Shoes"... Missing Child Found in 2 Hours Thanks to Driver's Sharp Eyesight

Received a Certificate of Appreciation and Reward, Yet Says
"It Was Only the Right Thing to Do"

Thanks to a driver in their 20s carefully checking a notification text about a missing child, an 8-year-old girl with autism safely returned to her family.

According to the police on the 11th, the Sosa Police Station in Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province, received a report around 6 p.m. on the 2nd that A (8), a girl with autism, had gone missing in Sosa-gu, Bucheon.

On April 10, citizen Park Amugae (27) received a certificate of appreciation from the police for contributing to the early discovery of an 8-year-old autistic child who had gone missing on April 2. Yonhap News

A, who had visited a child development center with her mother, was found to have gone missing after leaving the center ahead of her mother once the class ended. The police immediately sent out notification texts containing A’s description to inform citizens about the disappearance.

Park (27), who lives in Incheon, was driving in Bupyeong-gu when he received the missing child notification text and did not just pass by. Feeling concerned, he checked the message and saw a girl wearing 'pink shoes' walking alone, quickly stopping his car. He instinctively realized it was the same missing child mentioned in the text.

After confirming her appearance and clothing once again, Park reported to 112 and protected A until the police arrived at the scene. She was found within two hours. The police presented Park with a certificate of appreciation and a reward for his report. Park said, "I just did what anyone should do," adding, "I’m really relieved that A was able to return safely to her family."

A police official stated, "Thanks to the careful attention to the missing child notification text, which could have been easily overlooked, the golden time was not missed," and urged, "Please actively participate by showing interest and reporting."

Meanwhile, the disaster text service is divided into urgent disasters, emergency disasters, and safety notifications, with missing person alerts classified as safety notifications and sent via text. According to the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, missing person alert texts account for about 20% of all safety notification texts. From June to December 2021, when the missing person notification texts were first introduced, only 12 missing persons were found, but last year, the number increased nearly tenfold to 118.