Missing London Boy Found

The boy from London’s Edgware neighborhood who had been missing since Friday evening (as reported in yesterday’s edition), was found safe and sound on Monday afternoon on Tottenham Court Road in central London. A passerby recognized the teenager from the many posters distributed by Shomrim and reported the spotting to police.  Police quickly confirmed that he was indeed the subject.  The disappearance had been marked as “high risk” due to the young man’s severe learning disabilities.

Gavriel Ost, executive director of London’s Shomrim, told Hamodia about the unique means that were employed in this search; “We coordinated with the transportation system to track his Oyster Card [electronic cards used in London’s bus system]. Motzoei Shabbos we saw that he had gotten off a bus
in Trafalgar Square in Central London.” This presented Shomrim with the task of coordinating a search over London’s crowded downtown, including a concert in Hyde Park attended by an estimated 30,000 people.  “We set up a temporary command post in Edgware and a bunch of mini-posts around Central London,” said Ost.  “All information was sent to the command post and was then sent out to all of the volunteers by mobile phone.”

Mr. Ost extended his sincere thanks to the London Metropolitan Police for their help along with the nearly one thousand volunteers from across the spectrum of London’s Jewish community, and Rabbi Levi Sudak who allowed from Edgware’s community center to be used as the central command post.  Their combined efforts helped to bring the tense three day search to a happy end.

This article appeared in print on page 2 of the July 15th, 2014 edition of Hamodia.