Oakland

Missing Special-Needs Boy, 6, Found Safe After BART Ride Across Bay

Stranger's call, officer's actions bring boy back from Oakland to his mother in San Francisco

A San Francisco woman whose special needs son vanished from their home Monday was ever so grateful to a stranger across the bay in Oakland who found the boy on a BART platform in Oakland hours later.

Tina Berhane's 6-year-old son Nathan took off from their home near Hayes Valley around 4:30 p.m. Monday.

"In two mintues, he disappeared with his scooter," she said.

San Francisco police said they were concerned because he was so young and because of autism had a limited ability to communicate.

"We put out teletype; it goes to surrounding agencies," SF police said.

Dozens of SFPD officers circulated his picture as they searched for the boy.

Hours later, across the bay in Oakland, a BART passenger anonymously called police about a boy alone on the 19th street platform on a scooter. Officer Chris Evola responded.

"If I had to, I was gonna take him home," Evola said. "I was gonna find his parents, didn't care how long it took."

Evola asked Nathan to write down his address.

"He just kept writing down numbers, and I kept dialing," Evola said. It's a gift from God one number worked."

It's a moment Evola and Berhane won't soon forget. The boy's mother said he probably got on a bus and then on BART to oakland by himself. It's a route he takes to therapy once a week.

"All the different stops and all the people. The worst could have happened," she said.

"Thank you for saving my son. Thank you, I'm so happy."

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