When a woman’s child goes missing while she was shopping, she does something unusual that turns the heads of fellow shoppers. And it just might have saved her son’s life.
If you ever wonder if social has an upside, consider that it could be the crucial key to locating a missing child in a crowd.
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When a child goes missing, it’s a crisis that even those who aren’t parents understand. Yet it can be hard to react practically if you’re in a store, amusement park, zoo, or any busy place, and you look around and don’t see your child.
This is what one mom went through when shopping at a large KMart. Her first instinct was to desperately search down aisles and under racks, sending one friend up front to alert store staff. And, then, fortunately—she remembered a TikTok PSA shared by parenting vlogger Jess Martini.
Jess’ super-effective idea empowered this mom to reunite with her missing son after what she described on Facebook as “the scariest 10 minutes of my life.”
This viral video, with over 150,000 likes and 12,000 shares, explains that this can happen to any parent.
Jess says, “if your child, God forbid, ever goes missing in a public place...what you want to do is you want to start loudly looking for them. Do not start silently looking for them, you want to look loudly.”
Here’s the strategy: Immediately begin shouting age, hair, and clothing descriptors—clearly and repeatedly—so that you can activate a surrounding search team.
For example, “I’m looking for a five-year-old boy, brown hair, brown eyes, red t-shirt, blue jeans, white tennis shoes!”
Best case scenario, you’ve enlisted every single person around you to help—and someone will locate the missing child.
In Jess’ words, “You may think you look stupid, and maybe you do, but it’s so much better to look stupid than be sorry.”
So, as this frantic mom recalled the TikTok video tip, she began loudly shouting, “I’m missing a little boy, he’s wearing a yellow shirt and has brown hair. He’s two years old and his name is Nathan!”
According to one source, this frightened mom then heard a stranger call out, “He’s here.” To her immeasurable relief, she explained, “there he was. A man had walked past him after hearing me calling out.” And she said “a thousand thank yous to the man.”
One commenter on the TikTok video added this tip “Also tell a worker. They have protocol for this very thing and moments MATTER. I lost my daughter in Target and they locked the doors immediately.”
Want to be ready to help if and when a child goes missing? Watch Jess’ TikTok video to know exactly what to do in this harrowing situation.
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“Everyone should look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.” Philippians 2:4
@jesmartini PSA that I feel can save kids and I’ve used- if your child goes missing in public ##momsoftiktok ##PSA ##nojudgement ##fyp ##4up ##besafe ##parentsoftiktok
♬ original sound - Jess martini
h/t: Bored Panda
Featured Image Credit: TikTok @jesmartini