When a 6-year-old boy named Ethan ran off the school bus to play with his dog Remington, no one thought that that innocent move would create an hours-long ordeal for himself and his family.
But after Ethan vanished and neither he nor his dog could be found, a whole town came together to use every resource they had to find them both.
When they were discovered, they were alive and well and they were still by each other’s sides.
Over 600 people assisted in looking for the little boy, but that wasn’t the only help they had.
The search efforts were massive to find this Ethan.
After his parents put out a call for help, over 600 people responded and joined in looking for him. They even got an extra boost from technology.
One of the searchers happened to own a drone company, and he decided to use that to aid in the retrieval efforts.
He was inspired to help after seeing the dedication of the whole crowd. Steve Fines tells CBS News:
“I couldn’t go to bed knowing that I hadn’t done something…[Searchers] were not walking to the site, they were running, you know. You could hear them breathing heavily and crashing through bush and through the cornfields and everything, and then there was a lot of yelling.”
The search party lasted overnight.
People were looking for this child for a total of 10 hours. He wasn’t found until 2 a.m., and he had gone missing in the afternoon.
This was dangerous for Ethan, especially considering that the temperatures dropped to below 40 overnight, and he could have gotten really cold.
Fortunately, when he was discovered, the authorities took him to the hospital and he was okay.
Ethan is now happy to be home, and his dog Remington is doing well too. Their rescue is nothing short of a miracle.
It was the drone that found the little boy.
Steve Fines, the owner of the drone company, had never used a drone in a search and rescue mission before.
But it was this machine that led to Ethan being recovered.
Fines’s drone spotted him and his dog in a part of a field that had previously been checked by volunteers on foot.
He used thermal imaging through the drone’s camera to see through the dark of night. Because of this technology, they were able to bring Ethan home, safe and sound.
Everyone involved in this event recognizes that this is a testament to the importance of community care.
County Sheriff Brott says:
“This truly was the epitome of a community caring for its own…To see the outpouring of support in such a short time period to come out and help find this boy and his dog is heartwarming.”
Even Steve Fines is adamant that the credit for the rescue is not his alone.
He took to Facebook to write:
“While I was running the camera that found him and some of the news stories have focused on that, I only knew in which direction to look because volunteers on the ground had found a footprint that pointed me in the right direction. I knew which areas had already been searched because of the excellent coordination of the Sherburne County Sheriff. I had other volunteers running radios to coordinate ground search parties – the people moving across really rough ground to find him.
There were 600 of us that found Ethan that night.
With that here’s one thermal image I took. This was taken in complete darkness – the bright spots are all people out in a field getting ready to walk across in a search pattern. There were literally hundreds of people walking across wet muddy ground, in 30 degree temps at 1am because they wanted to help.
Kudos to everyone who came out.”
Isn’t this dog amazing for sticking with him through the whole ordeal?
Through it all, the dog stuck by his side. That comfort must have helped a lot.
While some other animals may have wandered off, Ethan’s dog Remington knew to keep him company.
According to Ethan’s mother, the boy and his dog have a special bond. She tells CBS:
“They’re just buddies. He’s his best buddy. They’re just like that.”
Watch the video below to learn more about this incredible story and meet the dependable dog who stayed by his side!
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