Technology can be a blessing or a curse. But when it comes to helping find missing people, it's an absolute blessing. Things like GPS trackers have aided in finding missing people or people who have been injured and are unable to call for help. Helicopters or other search and rescue vehicles are also often successfully used in situations when people go missing.
Now, Wisconsin authorities are praising the ability of drone technology to locate missing people after they used a thermal camera to find a toddler who had gone missing in a giant cornfield near his home.
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It seemed like it would be almost impossible to find the child.
The Fond du Lac County Sheriff’s Office shared a story about the child's rescue on its Facebook page, explaining that on August 25 at 8:49 p.m., their deputies responded to a call that a 3-year-old child had wandered off into a "standing cornfield" behind his family's home in the Township of Alto in Wisconsin.
When deputies got to the home, "they learned the child was last seen at approximately 7:30 PM and all of the barns and buildings on the property had been thoroughly searched," the press release explained.
The authorities knew that their best option to find the child was to use drone technology.
Once the situation had been assessed, the deputies called in the Alto Fire Department for the "man power to search the standing cornfield." Additionally, the sheriff's office "requested" a drone operator from the City of Fond du Lac Police Department to help search the 100-acre cornfield along with their own drone searching.
The City of Fond du Lac Police Department's drones are equipped with thermal cameras, which made finding the little boy more likely.
It was thanks to the thermal camera that the boy was found quickly.
"At approximately 9:30 PM the drone located a heat spot in the middle of the corn field and was able to walk a Fond du Lac County Deputy and fire personal into the corn field to location of the possible missing child. At 9:46 deputies advised that they had located the child and that he was uninjured," the press release said.
"The child was carried out of the corn field and then driven back to the farm where he was reunited with his parents. The child was approximately ½ mile away from home when he was located."
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This story has a happy ending and highlights the importance of technology in certain situations.
"We're right here buddy, we're right here for ya," first responders told the boy, according to local ABC affiliate WISN. "You're safe now. You're all right. We're going to go back and we're going to find your mom, okay?"
Speaking with the news, Lt. Alex Volm at Fond du Lac County Sheriff's Office explained that the boy got lost "chasing a cat into the cornfield."
"A harmless thing, you know, but it could have turned out really bad had we not had the opportunity to use our tools and collaborate with our law enforcement partners," he said.
