Malaysia—A five-year-old boy was inadvertently left behind by his Singaporean parents on December 14, Saturday, at a rest stop in Malaysia, where they had taken a break while on their road trip. They realized he was missing after a couple of hours, and called the police for assistance, and the family was reunited later that evening.
The boy, named Derrick, was found wandering around a Petronas oil station beside the rest stop, crying and looking for his mother. He was found by an attendant in the bathroom, when the attendant had gone to clean it.
The attendant took the boy into the gas station, where the staff gave him milo and ice cream to calm him down while they tried to track down his parents.
Facebook user Chen Shi Fu drew people’s attention to the plight of the young boy shortly past 7:30 in the evening of December 14, with a post that carried the boy’s photo. He asked for the post to be shared especially to people in Singapore.
He wrote in Chinese, “Some netizens in Singapore help me. My apprentice Wei Siang Lim, at the rest station in Malaysia, found a Singaporean child 5 years old who was separated from his parents. Help him share it and find his relatives.
Brothers and sisters, help out. The child’s name is Derrick, 5 years old. He is currently at Petronas Gas Station next to the Machap rest station in Malaysia. This younger brother is separated from his parents. The child is a Singaporean. Anyone who knows this child can contact this Malaysia number 0109861530. This is the contact number of the person in charge of the petrol station.
Please help to share around.
Derrick, 5 years old from Singapore got separated with his parents at Machap, Malaysia’s Petronas station.
Do contact 0109861530 (Petronas staff, Malaysia number) if anyone know this boy’s parents/relatives.
Thanks!!
Everyone help share.”
https://www.facebook.com/chen.shifu.5/posts/3349602178415187?__tn__=C-R
The post was eventually shared almost 10,000 times, with netizens even tagging the Singapore Police Force for help.
“We made a police report but decided to have him stay with us at the petrol station in case his parents came to look for him,” Lianhe Wanbao reported the petrol station manager as saying.
After the parents notified the police that their son was missing, the police brought the little boy to a police station around 20 kilometers away to be reunited with his parents.
Chen Shi Fu wrote a follow-up post to let everyone know that the parents of the boy had been found. “Finally found them. Thank goodness, the little thing cried for three hours. He was so tired. His parents have called the Malaysian police, and they will go to the oil station to pick up the little boy.”
He also thanked all the people who had shared his post.
Many netizens, in turn, thanked Mr Chen and expressed gladness that nothing bad had happened to the boy and that he had not fallen into the hands of traffickers.
-/TISG
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