It was all hands-on deck when the OPP got a 911 call that a 2-year-old boy had wandered away from his Perth County home and was missing. “Immediately we had a pretty good response, our Emergency Response Team was dispatched, our K-9 officers, Guardian 2, which is our helicopter, and then several drones too,” said Perth County OPP Community Engagement Officer Cst. Evan Polini. Shortly after 6 p.m. Monday night, resources from the OPP, North Perth Fire Department, Perth County EMS, and Huron and Area Search and Rescue converged on the village of Trowbridge, near Listowel. They were searching for a 2-year-old boy who had wandered away from his home and was thought to be lost in a nearby cornfield. Members of the public offered to help search as well. “Sometimes that could actually interfere with what we’re trying to do. If we see someone in the field, we may mistake them for the child and have to divert resources to that. So, I get everyone’s heart was in the right place trying to help out, but it was a very organized approach with how we were looking for this child,” said Polini. Despite all the technology at work, and multiple eyes in the sky looking for this missing child, it ended up being “boots on the ground” making the discovery. “So one of our ERT members and K-9 members, during their search through the cornfield, they came upon him,” said Polini. That was at 2 a.m., alleviating the mounting stress for the boy’s family and searchers. “After eight hours of searching for this child, when we got the radio call that he was located, there was just a huge sense of relief,” said Polini. The boy was quickly checked over by paramedics and returned to his family. Scared, but safe. “This is definitely showing how the OPP has a lot of resources available. And thankfully there was a successful outcome with this search,” said Polini.
