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tomwald

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child bicyclist missing -- FOUND

http://www.news8austin.com/content/head … 76&SecID=2

APD seeks help locating missing 11-year-old boy
10/19/2009 11:55 AM
By: News 8 Austin Staff
       
Eleven year old Pablo Notzon was reported missing Monday morning by the Austin Police Department.

Officials said he was last seen around the 500 block of East [West?] 16th Street.

Notzon is five feet, six inches tall and weighs about 84 pounds.

He has black hair, brown eyes and was last seen wearing a blue fleece jacket with khaki or gray shorts and gray tennis shoes.

APD officials said he left on a silver and red bike with a dark colored helmet and foul play is not suspected.

Detectives are concerned for his safety and ask anyone with information to call 911 or APD's missing persons unit at (512) 974-5250.

UPDATE:
http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/ … n_boy.html

Missing boy reunited with parents, police say

By Mark Lisheron | Monday, October 19, 2009, 01:34 PM

After leaving home this morning on his own, Pablo Notzon took a seat on the wooded hill across from House Park with a view of all the traffic on MoPac Boulevard, thought about how tough negotiating all that traffic was and decided to return home about 1:05 p.m.

"I think he was having trouble with all that traffic and he just decided to come home," relieved father, Robert Notzon said a few minutes ago. "He and his mom are having an emotional reunion."

Pablo had left a note for his parents this morning telling them not to worry, that he would be gone for three months and left instructions that his bedroom not be changed too much.

Austin police sent out an alert asking for help finding the 11-year-old boy, who is known at home as Bacio, the Italian word for kiss, his father said.

The Notzons had last seen their son at 6 a.m. today in their home in the 500 block of W. 16th Street, his father said, though he is not sure what time the boy left home. He was wearing a shell necklace that fit snugly at the neck and a black and gray backpack. He was riding a silver and red bicycle and wearing a dark colored helmet.

The Notzons were worried because Pablo said in his note that he had been thinking about leaving home since reading "My Side of the Mountain." http://www.kidsreads.com/reviews/0140348107.asp  The Newberry Award winning novel by Jean Craighead George http://www.jeancraigheadgeorge.com/ has become a classic since its publication in 1959 for its depiction of a boy who makes his home in the Catskill Mountains wilderness to learn about self sufficiency and nature.

"I think he thinks it's an adventure," Robert Notzon said while the boy was missing. "You can tell from the note he has been planning this a long time. Why he picked today to leave I don't know."

Like Sam Gribley, the boy in My Side of the Mountain, Pablo took a hachet with him. He also filled his backpack with oranges, Notzon said.

The Notzons are well-traveled and Pablo is familiar with maps, his father said. He is a good student at Kealing Middle School, bright and committed enough to carry out his plan, his father said.

"I'm telling you. I'm worried because he's fairly well equipped," Notzon said. "He's a straight-A student, and if he doesn't want to be found he won't be found."

Det. James Scott with the Austin Police Missing Persons Unit said today there had been no immediate cause for alarm, but there was concern because of the boy's age and his intention to head into the woods somewhere.

"Because of his age, he isn't able to make the choices a boy of 16 or 17 would make," Scott said. "My concerns, as far as the camping goes, is that you don't want him to meet the wrong kind of element out there."

This story reminds me a lot of myself when I was his age.  I never seriously ran away, but sometimes I would go for long, exploratory rides to help get away from whatever stress I was going through.

Last edited by tomwald (2009-10-19 15:22:04)