Unidentified Young Boy - 5-6 yo - Beaufort (E of Jacksonville) NC

Beaufort NC ---- The Carteret County Sheriff’s
Office is seeking information about a possible missing child following a
report of a young boy found playing in a business parking lot early
Tuesday morning but then disappeared.

Deputies responded to I.C. Countertops Granite
& Marble Company located in the Jarrett Bay Boat Works industrial
Park outside Beaufort after two workers at the business reported seeing a
black male child approximately 5- to 6-years old outside in the parking
lot at approximately 3:45 a.m. playing with a cat, according to a news
release issued by the sheriff’s office.

The workers attempted to approach the child, who
then ran around the backside of a building and disappeared. The two
workers alerted a security guard, who then contacted authorities and
began searching for the child, the release said.

Sheriff’s deputies searched the grounds,
buildings, dry dock boats and wooded areas but did not find the child.
They also went door to door in the Steel Tank Road area asking residents
to make sure their children were accounted for. The search then was
expanded to the entire industrial park complex and included
approximately 25 people, the sheriff’s office said.

Joining the search were Beaufort Fire &
Rescue Department, Carteret County Emergency Management, Broad &
Gales Creek Fire Department’s search & rescue dog, the U.S. Coast
Guard, and the North Carolina State Highway Patrol air unit.

After an eight-hour search and no reports of any
missing children, the search was suspended. At the time the news release
was issued, no one had called to report any missing juveniles, and
authorities believe the child may have lived close by and made it back
home.

Anyone who has information related to this case
is asked to call the Carteret County Sheriff’s Office at 252-504-4800.

This little guy probably wasn't really missing, just unsupervised.