A boy was found after the Revelstoke RCMP launched an emergency search for a 10-year-old who went missing at the Revelstoke Tim Hortons restaurant at about 2:15 p.m. on Wednesday, Mar. 20.
An initial dispatch on Revelstoke RCMP radio just before 2:30 p.m. indicated the Revelstoke boy went to the bathroom at the adjoining Shell station and didn't return to his waiting mother. She contacted the police, who immediately started a search.
RCMP members could be heard scouring restaurants and hotels in the area around the Revelstoke Tim Hortons. They soon called in all available auxiliary police officers and notified surrounding police detachments, taking steps to set up checkpoints on the highways and the Arrow Lakes ferry.
Police reviewed the video surveillance system from the Shell station and fanned out across town as their search area expanded.
The boy's mother, Delphine Harvey, was visiting from Ontario. She had dropped the youngster off at the bathroom at the Shell station, then went inside the adjoining Tim Hortons to order.
When the boy came out, he thought his mom had left and decided to walk home. The boy was eventually found near the Southside Market just before 3 p.m. The mother was overcome with relief when the police announced they located the boy, almost 45 minutes after he disappeared at the busy restaurant near the highway.
The father, Gerrard Kampman, was called to the scene from work. He was incredibly relieved to hear his son Max had been found.
"It was a shock. I'm really happy that he was here," he said.
At one point, the disappearance took an ominous turn; a dispatcher instructed all police members to be on the lookout for a suspicious older man in a minivan seen near Max just before he disappeared.
~with notes and photos from Carl BR Johnson