GUILFORD COUNTY, N.C. — A grandmother found herself in a panic after learning her grandson who has autism didn't get off the school bus.
"My husband told me to just lay down and leave the light on and he'll be home, and we prayed. Our church family prayed for us, that he'd be safe," Atheria Finley-Mayo said.
Finley-Mayo is 14-year-old Isaiah Thompson's grandmother.
Instead of getting on the bus and going home, Thompson went to the train station in downtown Greensboro and tried to get a ride to Detroit to see his mom and get his disability check.
"I just know she's at work or she's at the same homeless shelter. So, if she's at work, I could find that easily," Thompson explained.
When his grandparents couldn't find him, they called 911 to report him missing. They worried for hours not knowing where he was and who he could be with.
"Some children don't ever return home. They're missing for years and years or they're never found. That's something a parent doesn't ever want to go through," Finley-Mayo exclaimed.
"I was thinking what's going to happen now?" Thompson recalled.
Child Find of America is a non-profit created to find missing kids and keep them safe.
According to their website, if your child runs away, you should call the police and ask officers to enter your child into the National Crime Information Center.
Greensboro police officer J. Deatherage was already at the train station wrapping up another call when security was trying to figure out why Thompson was there alone.
"His backpack had his name written on it. We used that and checked our system to see if there were any missing kids and somebody had reported him missing earlier in the day," Officer Deatherage said.
Officers ended up taking the teen home. Through the whole process, Thompson said he learned an important lesson.
"One thing is to love your parents and don't run away," Thompson shared.
While the teen always hopes to hear from his mom, he's learning this might be the best situation for now.
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