Crime & Safety

Police Recover Missing Novi Boy After 1-Hour Search

The boy's mother believed he ran away from home because he didn't want to do his homework.

Police were able to find a missing Novi child and return him home on Tuesday night after an extensive use of resources, according to Novi Chief of Police and Director of Public Safety David Molloy.

Molloy said the Novi police were dispatched to the 22000 Block of Heatherwoode in the Village Oaks subdivision (near Nine Mile and Haggerty roads) around 9:20 p.m. after a mother reported that her 12-year-old son was missing. The woman told police that she believed he had run away because he was upset over having to do his homework. 

The Novi Police Department sent out six officers, one K-9, and a supervisor to search for the boy. Community crews from the Fire Department also helped. The Novi police also alerted neighboring police departments to be on the look out for the boy.

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About an hour after the boy was reported missing, the Farmington Hills Police Department found the boy near Eight Mile and Orchard Lake roads. He was apparently trying to walk to his father's house in that area. The police then brought him back to his mother. The case has now been turned over to Novi's youth detective.

Molloy said the department deployed several officers in hope of being able to locate the boy quickly.

Find out what's happening in Noviwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"It's one of those situations that's, yes, very resource intensive, but we're very fortunate that it turned out the way it did," Molloy said. "I guess the message to parents is, yes, you can call and alert us to these situations, but the message to kids is that you also tie up eight police cars for nearly an hour because you ran away and that's very difficult."


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