NY NY - Patrick Alford, 7, Brooklyn, 22 Jan 2010 - #1

[Salem]

Address: 130 Vandalia Avenue in Brooklyn

Doesn't seem to fit the numbering system as discussed in the wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starrett_City,_Brooklyn

"Each building has between 11 and 20 floors, with 8 apartments on most floors. All of the apartment buildings have a street address as well as a building name consisting of one letter from A-H, and one number from 1-8. In this case, A5 would refer to the fifth building of Ardsley Loop"

Hmmm,

Salem

ETA: Link to goodle map of address: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=130+V...322,-73.883473&spn=0.001746,0.003235&t=h&z=18

Looks like his building would back up to some green/park space.

 

[Salem]

And very close to Pennsylvania Ave - which appears to be a divided road with 2 lanes in each direction.

I would be panic'ed.

Salem

 

[nursebeeme]

Oh man... I had hoped this little fella would have been found by now! What a strange thing to happen!

 

[panthera]

Am I the only one with a hinky meter at RED alert here? The child went outside WITH his foster mother to take the trash out. When she went back in, he wasn't with her:waitasec::waitasec: Ummmm....... how does that work? You walk to the garbage can and back - together? At what point did he leave her side?

I have walked to the garbage can with my son in a number of different locations and I don't remember ever losing him? I'm not getting this, it makes NO SENSE!

Patrick - prayers for you sweetie. Where ever you are, may the angels protect you and guide you to safety.

Salem

I can't understand it either. At what point did she lose him? :waitasec: I'm just praying right now he's safe somewhere but he's only 7 y/o and really can't take care of himself and doesn't have warm clothing on either. :cry:

 

[panthera]

I'm sorry I posted last night and then disappeared. My computer crashed and I just turned it off out of frustration.

Anyway - the compacter, as opposed to outside dumpsters, makes this story even harder to believe. He's 7? How old is the foster mom? I'm old and I can still catch a 7 year old. And if the child was upset over the recent changes in his life, wouldn't you be holding his hand? Okay - maybe not. Maybe little Patrick didn't want to hold anyone's hand.

So... the story is - they walked from their apt. to the compactor, fostermom is putting trash in and Patrick takes off running? The compactor must have been on the 1st floor then, if he made it outside?

Looking for updates,

Salem

Thanks for more details. I replied to the other post before reading this page. I still have a lot of questions though, such as the foster mom's physical condition and if she could've tried to run after him ~ and most important, where he'd run to.

 

[Mia]

I've been to East New York once in my life - it's way out there deep into Brooklyn and is NOT a good area. Starrett City has a population that rivals many small towns. There should be video at the entrance/in the lobby and maybe in the elevators if Starrett City's policies are similar to a lot of the other public housing projects here. I don't know where this child could be, but like someone else mentioned, a native NY'er 7-year old is more street smart than your average 7-year old, and it's likely Patrick could figure out how to use the subway, so he could be anywhere in the 5 boroughs by now. The only positive is that it really hasn't been that cold here in NYC the last week or so. It's chilly at night, but we're not experiencing any frigid temps or precipitation. Any word on where the mother lives exactly? If that's indeed where he was heading...although the 'taking out the garbage and disappeared' story sounds a bit suspect to me, too. I hope LE is grilling the foster parents.

 

[panthera]

Very true. But we would then have to assume that it was "not a perv" that could have seen him. Over 1,000 RSOs within 5 miles of his apartment. You're right though. You'd think *someone* would notice a 7 year old, in a tshirt, outside after dark in the winter.

How far outside did they go to empty the trash? I'm just curious why he didn't have a jacket on, or maybe they weren't outside the building that long? There's no way he could last all night in the cold.

 

[DeepThinker]

Hinky alert! How do you lose a 7 yr old while taking out the trash? Unless, like in a story awhile back about a 10 yr old (I think) being tased...it was explained there that foster parents cannot under any circumstances restrain a child. If that's the case...she's just supposed to let him run? That's not right, either. That only allows the child to get into further possible danger. :furious:

I hope he is found safe...as in 10 minutes ago.

 

[SheWhoMustNotBeNamed]

Really, really frustrated about the lack of information out there about Patrick. He's been missing for nearly 48 hours now!

Here is a video someone made on YouTube. Pretty simple, but good to spread the word.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frqKrGzshZ8

 

[webrocket]

Hinky alert! How do you lose a 7 yr old while taking out the trash? Unless, like in a story awhile back about a 10 yr old (I think) being tased...it was explained there that foster parents cannot under any circumstances restrain a child. If that's the case...she's just supposed to let him run? That's not right, either. That only allows the child to get into further possible danger. :furious:

I hope he is found safe...as in 10 minutes ago.

I thought I read somewhere that these foster parents have been taking in children for 20 years without incident. Assuming that to be true, I don't see why now they would turn into monsters and harm a child.

For all we know she brought the kid along as to NOT leave him alone in the apt so it might have been worse had she left him alone even for 5 mins or so.

I don't know the layout of where the garbage receptacles are or what paths one has to walk through to get there. Some places require tenants to use keys to avoid illegal dumping so if she had to play around with a door or key it may have given the kid a very short window to bolt.

Very sad.

 

[SheWhoMustNotBeNamed]

Good point, webrocket. I do still think we need some more info about the foster parents though. I'm not saying that they had anything to do with it, but still.

IMO, I don't think she was worried about leaving him alone. It sounds as though she has multiple foster children, including Patricks younger sibling. So unless those other children were out of the apartment at the time, he wouldn't have been alone. But again, we just don't know the whole situation.

I think if he was planning to run, he would have thrown on a sweatshirt or coat. But then again, 7 year olds don't always think of these things.

Ohhh so many unanswered questions!

 

[TGIRecovered]

Something stinks with this story. This very experienced foster mom has a boy who, according to her, tries to run away every day. He is only 7 years old. What the heck made her think it was a good idea to let that child out of her sight for even a minute? It was 9pm...after dark, on a weekend night in a neighborhood crowded with strangers in New York City! She should have had that child either by the hand or within arm's reach the whole time. I don't believe she was just distracted for a moment and poof! he was gone!

 

[mae]

Also, the first article said "trash compactor" instead of just taking the trash out to the can/bin. That just brings up all sorts of horrible things in my mind that I don't even want to think about right now.

Almost always in NYC apartment buildings, this is a small room with recycling and a trash cute that opens with a small door--not that different from the way a post office box chute works--and that sends all the trash from different floors to one room in the basement.

I would have assumed they would have checked the trash room. Right?

 

[mae]

Have they talked to the bio mother and family? Has the child tried to contact them? If he's running, he has to have a place in mind to go or people to turn to. He wouldn't just hit the streets, would he?

 

[SheWhoMustNotBeNamed]

Have they talked to the bio mother and family? Has the child tried to contact them? If he's running, he has to have a place in mind to go or people to turn to. He wouldn't just hit the streets, would he?

We don't know. There has been no news since yesterday. I would assume that they are in contact with his bio family. I think your theory would be correct with a teen, but I'm not sure that a 7 year old would think that far ahead and have a plan. But then, we don't know Patrick's history. We don't know if he is familiar with NYC, the subways, the streets, etc. Even if he was, though, there is still so much danger out there for a little boy.

 

[petra]

Just checking in--was hoping for good news by now.....sigh.

 

[Texas Mist]

I've checked all day to see if local news was keeping Patrick's story out there - not finding much, but there's no new news.

Updated at 04:57 PM today
http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/local&id=7235740

 

[SheWhoMustNotBeNamed]

Thanks for your continued checking, Texas. Day 3 of no Patrick.

The initial report said that Patrick disappeared while taking the trash out WITH his foster mother. Following reports have said he disappeared from the apartment while his foster mother was taking out the trash. This, IMO, is more likely. Simply because of what others have stated earlier. How do you lose a child on the way to the trash?

 

[mae]

I posted a tip to gothamist, and they posted the story.

http://gothamist.com/2010/01/24/7-year-old_ran_from_foster_home.php#comments

I hope more media outlets follow suit.

 

[mae]

We don't know. There has been no news since yesterday. I would assume that they are in contact with his bio family. I think your theory would be correct with a teen, but I'm not sure that a 7 year old would think that far ahead and have a plan. But then, we don't know Patrick's history. We don't know if he is familiar with NYC, the subways, the streets, etc. Even if he was, though, there is still so much danger out there for a little boy.

No doubt there is a lot of danger out there. And we have no idea the level of street smarts he has. But as the parent of a 7 year old in Brooklyn, I know it's very possible he is familiar with NYC and the subways and streets assuming he is in foster care in the same city in which he lives. Kids raised here know how to get around. Hopefully, he has a plan and know where he was doing and went straight to somewhere he knows.