Posted on 05/12/2003 7:44:01 AM PDT by Sweet_Sunflower29
NIAGARA FALLS, Ont. -- A seven-year-old boy wandered 10 kilometres into the U.S. without being noticed by border officials, leaving his father and police puzzled as to how the child crossed unchecked during a period of heightened border security.
Mitchell Hernder was reported missing Saturday afternoon after leaving home on his sister's bicycle, a Toronto CTV affiliate reported Sunday.
The mildly autistic boy was found two hours later, standing in the middle of a street, 10 kilometres from the border in Niagara Falls, N.Y.
"It's a good thing he knew his name, or he wouldn't have got home,'' the boy's father, Mark Hernder, told CFTO.
"He's gone to the end of the street before. It blew us away that he could just do that and wind up in the States, nobody would think of looking for him there.''
The boy told his father that when he arrived at the Whirlpool Bridge he saw a sign that read: No bicycles allowed.
He then threw his bike over the side of the bridge and wandered over to the U.S. side.
Niagara Falls, N.Y., police officer John Conte picked the boy up after getting a call from a motorist.
"It's not often you pick up a missing child from another country,'' he said.
Security was tightened at U.S.-Canada border crossings in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and further heightened due to the U.S.-led war with Iraq.
U.S. Customs and Immigration officials said they were unaware of the incident, and refused comment
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