Barrie police say they have not received any further information on the situation involving a little boy wandering along Lakeshore Drive on Monday morning, but are thankful for the tip from a concerned citizen.
A search near the Southshore Centre yesterday has still not turned up any clues on what happened to the toddler who had been seen walking along the busy waterfront road.
Barrie police communications co-ordinator Peter Leon told BarrieToday he believes the person who called in the report did see something.
“I do not believe this was a hoax at all. There is no doubt that someone saw something, but by the time they doubled back after turning around, the child was gone,” Leon said Tuesday. “Whether the situation was such that someone stopped the car and the child somehow got out quickly, we just don’t know.”
Leon said there have still been no reports of a missing child.
City police received a call on Monday, Nov. 7 at 7:46 a.m. from a motorist travelling along Lakeshore Drive toward Minet’s Point who had seen a child walking along the median.
The child’s description was a white male, approximately three years old, with blonde hair, blue eyes, blue pyjamas, and blue rain boots.
Police descended on the area immediately and began searching in the vicinity.
“This person did the right thing by reporting this. We would never fault anybody for calling something like this in,” said Leon. “They saw a young child, out of place and not wearing the proper clothing for the weather. We were able to get our resources down there very quickly and search the area along the road and waterfront.”
Leon said there were arrangements to bring the drone to assist with the search, but it was too windy.
After combing the area, the search was called off and there have still been no calls from a family to report a missing child.
“We haven’t received that call yet and we would have by now. In these situations, we would ask families to call us even if it was a misunderstanding so we can cross it off,” Leon said.
