Missing 6-year-old boy found
RALEIGH (WTVD) -- A 6-year-old boy reported missing Thursday morning has been found.
Police had been searching for Chris Gathuri Gacheru, who has cognitive impairments, after he was last seen in the 3000 block of Holston Lane off Sunnybrook Road near New Bern Avenue Thursday morning.
According to police, confusion over a change in Gacheru's school transportation apparently resulted in him getting on the wrong school bus Thursday morning.
An official affiliated with a day camp at St. Augustine's University in downtown Raleigh said the boy got on the camp's YMCA bus and ended up with other campers.
"We really highly appreciate that we have got Chris back home," said his father Samuel Gacheru.
For several hours Chris' mom and dad lived every parent's nightmare.
"It is terrifying," Gacheru said.
It all started around 8 o'clock outside the family's East Raleigh apartment. They'd been told there would be a change in the private transport sent by Wake schools to take Chris to Oak Grove Elementary.
"There was a mix-up and the exact time that we expected him to be picked up by the bus was the same time that the YMCA bus came," Gacheru said. "So it was a mere, I think it was a coincidence."
But minutes later the boy's real ride showed up and panic set in.
A staffer at the school explained further in a 911 call.
"He was supposed to be picked up by Drew Transportation, a cab," the caller told 911. "And mom told us that she, a white bus stopped and she put him on the bus. And she did not give any identifying attributes. She did not know what was on the bus."
The bus was actually a YMCA bus bringing summer day camp students to St. Augustine's yesterday.
In the meantime, police sent out an alert, hoping the public would help find him.
By then, alert counselors at the daycare realized they had an extra child and apparently called police. Officers were on hand in minutes, and apparently picked the little boy up and rode him home in a police cruiser.
His parents were grateful to all, and little Chris seemed especially happy to see his little sister, as he reached out to touch her little hand.
