Missing Child Found at a McDonald's in Another State After AMBER Alert

Police searching for a missing baby safely recovered the one-year-old at a McDonald's restaurant some 200 miles away in a neighboring state, officials said.

An Amber Alert was issued after the baby was reportedly taken by his father, Johnny Kirk, from Lovely, Kentucky, in the early hours of Sunday.

The child was found safe and well in Columbus by troopers from Ohio State Highway Patrol later the same morning. A spokesperson for the OSHP told local news channel NBC 4 that the baby was found at a McDonald's near East Livingston Avenue and Alum Creek Drive.

Lieutenant Nathan Dennis told WBNS in Columbus that troopers found the child in the McDonald's parking lot around 8:45 a.m. The child is now with child protective services.

The little boy's father was taken into custody as a suspect, a spokesperson told Dayton 247, and he is reportedly still in custody at the Franklin County Jail in Jackson Pike, Columbus.

The AMBER Alert that was issued had appealed for information about Kirk, who was said to be driving a cream-colored 2007 Chevy Suburban with Ohio plate JNG4637. His baby son had last been seen wearing a blue shirt and Ninja Turtle pants. The alert has now been officially canceled, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Newsweek reached out to the Ohio State Highway Patrol and Columbus Police Department for comment.

An AMBER Alert is an emergency message issued when a law enforcement agency "determines that a child has been abducted" and is in "imminent danger," according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

"AMBER" stands for "America's Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response." These alerts are broadcast via radio and television, as well as through road signs and even cell phone messages to raise awareness and recruit ordinary Americans to join the search for kidnapping victims.

The system was launched in 1996 when broadcasters in the Dallas-Fort Worth area joined forces with local police to develop "an early warning system" to help find children who had been abducted. The name was also designed to be a legacy for nine-year-old Amber Hagerman, who was kidnapped and murdered in Arlington, Texas, that year. Her killer has never been caught.

Soon after the system was set up, other states and communities established their own "AMBER plans," as the idea was adopted across the country. There were some 86 AMBER plans throughout the United States as of November 24, 2021, according to the Department of Justice.