ASHEBORO, N.C. — We all received an Amber Alert on our phones last night and Asheboro police canceled it a couple hours, it led to questions about why it was sent out in the first place.
According to Asheboro Police, the children's mother said their father took the kids from her home without permission. Their father, Deshawn Williams and his wife Haley Williams said her husband did nothing wrong.
She said he picked the kids up from the home and they went with him willingly.
"They were outside playing in the yard with no adult supervision there was no adults outside, so he approached the kids, and the kids immediately came to him they rushed to him because they haven't seen him for over a month," Haley said.
Haley said her husband put the kids in her car and drove away. She said the children's mother saw him driving away.
Haley said there's no formal custody agreement between the parents, so that might have added to the confusion. She said they were able to explain to police what happened, and police canceled the alert.
WFMY News 2 reached out to Asheboro Police for confirmation, but they declined an interview request.
However, the Director of the North Carolina Center for Missing Persons, Nona Best said police sent out the alert because they believed the children were in danger.
"They do a preliminary investigation so there's a lot of ways that they can interview the person that's reporting the child missing to find out if all of the evidence and all the information their gathering equals to this child being missing," Best said.
The Center for Missing Persons encourages parents to alert police as soon as their child is taken so the amber alert can be sent out as soon as possible.