WALLINGFORD, Conn. — A Wallingford man in the right place at the right time Monday night may have saved a 12-year-old boy who ran away from home.
Tim Nielsen was walking his dog outside Fritz Elementary School at 11:45 p.m. in the pouring rain when the boy approached him.
“I’m usually looking for skunks at night not children,” remarked Neilsen.
Nielsen said the boy followed him from the Corner Store on Route 68 to the school before asking him for help, adding that “it was a 12-year-old kid who was lost and didn’t even know which state he was in.”
The father of a 13-year-old boy, Nielsen went into dad mode and befriended the boy, who told him that he was afraid of his own father and decided to run away. The boy admitted to stealing a family member's credit card and hitchhiking from Brooklyn, N.Y.
“He was a little nervous and when he told me where he was from, I didn’t think he had any fear of running any further,” remarked Neilsen.
Rather than risk spooking the child by calling police, Neilsen turned to social media.
“It definitely caught people’s attention,” he said.
Neilsen posted on the Wallingford Community Facebook forum that he was with an abandoned child and asked for someone to send an officer. Within minutes, multiple people called police on his behalf.
“I’m not really surprised. We have a lot of good people in Wallingford,” said Neilsen.
Neilsen added that he used his cell phone to call the boy’s mother.
“She wasn’t really aware that he was missing and wasn’t too concerned." The mother ordered the boy a Lyft driver. “It’s a pretty long drive with a stranger at 12 years old,” said Neilsen.
The mother did not answer the phone or return a call for comment.
“Most of our kids are playing video games in their room," Nielsen noted. "We just assume that’s where they are. Apparently not always.”
The Center for Children’s Advocacy said the incident highlights the need for a rich network of community based support services.
“12 years old is surprising, particularly in how smart this young person was to get themselves from one place to the other and the distance this person traveled,” remarked Stacey Violante Cote, the deputy director of the agency.
She continued, “But we do see unfortunately plenty of children and youth who feel unsafe in their surroundings and choose to leave home to seek safety.”
Wallingford police didn’t want to comment on the incident, but said that if anyone ever finds themselves in a situation where they can’t call for help, they can also text 911. It is a feature that many people still are not aware of. Posting on social media forums that are not monitored 24/7 are not reliable.
It is not clear where that boy was taken following the incident.
Matt Caron is a reporter at FOX61 News. He can be reached at mcaron@fox61.com. Follow him on Facebook, X and Instagram.
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