By Lauren Liebhaber
The Charlotte Observer
ALTO, Wis. — A missing toddler was found in the middle of a 100-acre cornfield – an area roughly equivalent to 100 football fields – thanks to the use of a thermal imaging drone, Wisconsin authorities said.
Deputies responded shortly before 9 p.m. Aug. 25 to reports of a lost 3-year-old boy from Alto Township who had been missing for an hour and a half, according to an Aug. 30 news release from the Fond du Lac County Sheriff’s Office.
After confirming the toddler was not inside the barns or any other buildings on the farm, the sheriff’s office requested the services of a drone operator from the City of Fond du Lac Police Department to scan the fields, authorities said.
At around 9:30 p.m., the drone, equipped with thermal cameras, “located a heat spot in the middle of the cornfield,” the sheriff’s office said.
Authorities located and carried the uninjured child out and reunited him with his parents, deputies said.
“We’re right here, buddy,” first responders can be heard telling the boy in body camera footage shared by WISN. ”You’re safe now,” they said. “We’re going to go back and we’re going to find your mom, okay?”
He was found half a mile from his home, according to authorities.
“He said he’d been chasing a cat into the cornfield,” Lt. Alex Volm of the Fond du Lac County Sheriff’s Office told WISN.
“A harmless thing, you know, but it could have turned out really bad had we not had the opportunity to use our tools and collaborate with our law enforcement partners,” Volm told the outlet.
Alto is about an 80-mile drive northwest from Milwaukee.
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