The "AMBER Alert" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Went to bed after House Hunters International ended at 11:00 PM last evening.  Was just about asleep when Carol shook my shoulder and said, "What's that noise?"  "I have no idea.  Never heard that one before."  I, at times, can't hear certain high-pitched sounds, but I could hear this one.  Beep, Beep!  Must have gone on for six or seven times before it stopped.  We have a house-wired smoke detector right outside our bedroom and a CO2 detector plugged into a wall outlet right outside our bedroom and it wasn't either one of them, since they both have gone off before and it didn't sound like the noise we were now hearing.  We also have a house security alarm system with a glass break alarm in the hall and it wasn't that, since that's real loud.  Ah Ha!  I jumped out of bed and grabbed my cell phone from my jeans pocket which was in the closet and opened the top.  The phone glowed "AMBER Alert".  Wow!  The message read .... Lancaster City, PA AMBER Alert: LIC/JJG-8170 (Pa) Black Nissan Altima.  Thu. Feb 6, 11:39pm.  I don't ever remember seeing an alert such as this on my cell phone.  Spooky!  Especially late at night.  I know that an Amber Alert means that a child or children have been kidnapped so I suspected the black Nissan car was the car used in the crime.  Nothing that I could do so I went back to bed.

This photo of the two children that were abducted appeared
in a New York Newspaper.

 This morning on the TV they announced that shortly after 7:00 PM last evening two males, the father and grandfather of the abducted children, entered a home in the south end of the city of Lancaster, PA and after threatening the occupants with a gun and beating the lone male occupant with a wrench, the duo took the younger intruder's son and daughter from the house.  City police believed the black Nissan might be headed to Boston where the kidnappers had relatives so they notified the State Police.  About an hour later the AMBER Alert was sounded.  

The same newspaper posted this photo of the capture.

At 5:19 AM this morning a tip came in that the car was spotted in Vineland, NJ.  Then at 7:30 AM, a PA State Trooper saw the car turn off Route 1 onto eastbound I-76 near Philadelphia.  That Trooper, assisted by Philadelphia police, stopped the car and took the two passengers into custody.  The two children were found sleeping on the back seat.  The two children as well as the kidnappers were returned to Lancaster.  The abductors were charged with kidnapping, burglary, robbery, simple assault and criminal conspiracy and committed to jail.  The Lancaster Police Chief said that the AMBER Alert System is used when people under the age of 18 are abducted.  It certainly worked well in this case.  I will never forget the piercing sound that came from my tiny cell phone that night.  Evidently many others were alerted which lead to the safe recovery of the two children.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.