The missing boy prompted a massive search effort, but he wasn't really gone.
The police used sniffer dogs. They searched abandoned buildings. They dredged a nearby river.
Nine-year-old Josh Dinning disappeared from his bed in England Tuesday, prompting anxious parents and police to look high and low for the child.
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But they neglected to look under Josh's bed, and that's where the child had been hiding all along.
"He has now been reunited with his family and we will be reviewing why he was missed in our initial searches," the Northumbria Police said in a statement.
A massive search was launched after Josh's parents went to get him up for school and found his bed was empty. After searching their house, they called the cops.
Officers fanned out and combed the neighborhood, the River Tyne and abandoned buildings. Sniffer dogs were dispatched, as was a police helicopter. Searchers poked in garbage bins and under houses.
After nearly four hours, cops finally found Josh hiding in a cubbyhole under his bed.
"I was just sitting outside the house when all of a sudden I heard someone saying, 'He is here.' Apparently Josh had [gotten] into the cabinet under the bed," his older brother, Scott, told local reporters. "It's one of those beds that has sliding doors and somehow he got himself inside and shut the doors."
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The family, Scott Dinning said, was panic-stricken.
"We were all worried sick," he said. "I have been to hell and back, but obviously we do not know what was going through his mind, or why he did this," the brother said.
Friends had even printed up fliers emblazoned with Josh's photo and were preparing to distribute them throughout the town.
"I just want to thank everybody for what they've done," Josh's brother said.
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