Last Updated: 11:02 p.m.
11 p.m. update: The Flagler County Sheriff’s Office announced at 11 p.m. that Alex Cargo, the missing 14-year-old who’d been the subject of an extensive search since Saturday afternoon, had returned home. The missing-person alert was cancelled. See the details of the incident here.
Earlier:
The Flagler County Sheriff’s Office issued an alert for a missing teenager, 14-year-old Alex Cargo of Palm Coast, after 9 p.m. Saturday evening.
Sheriff’s deputies have been conducting a ground, air and K-9 search in the B Section of Palm Coast since shortly after 4 p.m. when, the youth was reported as missing by his mother after the two had an argument, the sheriff’s office said in a release late Saturday.
The alert, transmitted through the sheriff’s Code Red system to cell phones and land-lines–and by email a few minutes earlier–stated that the Hispanic boy was last seen at 4:15 p.m. in the area off of Burnell Place in Palm Coast. He was wearing a green shirt, blue jeans and dark glasses. He is 5’8”, dark skinned, about 150 pounds. He has brown eyes and black hair cut in a buzz‐cut style.
Anyone with information about Cargo is asked to call the Sheriff’s Office at 313-4911. Information may remain confidential.
No additional information is available at this time.
NortonSmitty says
I am so glad the News in our little town of Bridgeville, PA only came out once a week on a six page rag that had 4 1/2 pages of ads. Otherwise I would have had my hormonal wanderings where “nobody understood and you had to get away from EVERYBODY for a while until you could deal with things” spread all over town and would have had to immediately do it all over again. Of course a week or so later I had to do it all over again anyhow.
But it would have been harder with this kind of exposure. And statistics prove it actually was way more dangerous for kids and everybody back in th 60’s no matter what the TV tells you, so was this alert really necessary after just a few hours? I don’t know.
But if your reading this kid, it really ain’t that big a deal. Believe it or not, you are normal. And life will get better for you. In a year or two, you will probably even get a little mud for your turtle. And trust me, shit will be good.
Gary says
Glad he was found. But, why did I get a call on my home phone, cell phone, and in an email? Once for when he was lost and then again when he returned home. That is six notifications. Why? Wouldn’t one call be enough. How do I cancel this service?
meme4andcounting says
Where was he?
blondee says
A 14 year old has an argument with a parent. Newsflash!!!! Doesn’t this happen every day? I can’t help but think that this was a bit of overkill to conduct an air search. When I got the phone call at 10pm about a missing child, certainly I was concerned. When it was announced he was 14, my blood began to boil. It boiled all over again at 11:25 when I was awoken from a deep sleep to learn he was located.
A.S.F. says
I received a call earlier in the day about the missing boy and am relieved that he was found safe. But was it really necessary to call back at 11:30 PM last night and wake us up to tell us that the alert had been cancelled? Again, I am glad the young man was found and hope that he and his family can settle their differences, whatever they be.
Anonymous says
STOP CALLING ME AT NIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
David says
I’m all for the alerts, but I don’t thinks it’s necessary to recall at 11:30 at night to say he came home and it is now cancelled
What is Dark Skin??? says
Ok, I got the automated calls last night. One for his description and last location, the other for when they found him. Personally the young man’s description given doesn’t appear to be accurate based off of the picture of what I had in mind based off of the description given. This young man to MOST minority communities would not be considered dark skin. Maybe the authorities need to update their “code on descriptions when it comes to IDing the missing or people of interest. I think automobiles have a better chance of being found then people do sometimes. Cars fit into this nice little check list, make/model/year/color and so on. You say dark skin, I’m looking for Wesley Snipes.
Why says
Why was an alert sent out for someone that was only missing 4 hours? The follow up call at 11:33 p.m to wake up everyone in the house could have been avoided. I thought someone had to go missing for 24 hrs before they could be reported missing. This kid should be discplined for not letting his parents know where he was.
Genie says
VERY glad this turned out well, but a couple of thoughts here….
If we are going to be doing this for every child who does not come home at night, none of us are going to get any sleep. When you place these calls late at night, there is not much good anybody can do, as most are already in bed, sleeping.
And I am wondering who thought it was a good idea to wake everybody up again near midnight to say he’d been found.
Linda Morgan says
I got both calls. I was impressed that we had that kind of system. I ‘m also glad that Alex Cargo is safe at home.
jadobi says
Seems a little over-the-top to use reverse 911 in this situation. I’m sure kids get mad and walk out daily. Is there some special circumstance I missed? And to call everyone? I’m no where near that section.
RHWeir says
Glad the boy is safe. However, was the red alert system needed? The kid missed dinner. He walked out after an argument with his parent. When I was his age, I would do the same thing on occasion. My parents would call around the neighborhood and call my friends. It is encouraging that the sheriff took this so seriously and responded but, the use of red alert may have been premature. A comment about that red alert system, they totally missed the last line of severe storms that passed over our house. I watched the storms come in on NWS radar and saw the warning boxes but no red alert. But, then a 14 year old walks out in a huff and my phone starts ringing right away. Guidelines need to be established and followed for the use of the system. I do not expect red alert to miss the next severe weather that comes to the area.
Willing State Employee says
I agree! I don’t know too many 14 yr olds that have the emotional control to NOT walk out when fighting with their parents… But not all of those kids get reported as a “missing child”. He wasn’t missing. He was pissed off.
I love the reverse 911 tho—whether you live in that area or not—because often 14 yr olds are friends these days with some 15 or 16 yr olds that have cars, so they wouldn’t be limited to just one area in Palm Coast or Flagler County either.
farmer says
I totally agree with the above comments stating this was an unnecessary call. We live in Flagler Beach, nowhere nearby, and I would hope we will not be receiving these calls every time a teenager becomes angry with his mother and walks out. The 11:30 call advising he had been found was ridiculous. We have illness in the family and sleep does not come often, so we were not pleased to be awakened to hear he was safe.
Genie says
Again, VERY GLAD Alex was found to be safe. Every parent knows this nightmare, and it never ends.
However, it seems to me that unless there is an armed and dangerous person loose in the neighborhoods, the Sheriff’s office should not be using our emergency alert system for amber alerts.
It is supposed to be for weather related or dangerous incidents only. If you begin using it for things other than it’s intent, people will stop listening and taking it seriously.
m&m says
THANKS for waking me up twice for this.. What did they expect me to do get dressed and go looking for him????
Sgt Hardcore says
DON’T CALL ME AGAIN at 12:00 at night unless Palm Coast is on fire or a Tornado is about to rip us apart. My kids left so many times when they were teenagers I just waited until they got hungry and they came home.
Bob Z. says
Is there someway to be removed from the call list? I was woken up as well and live beachside in a gated community, no where near the area. I assume this is something new that has started?
Joseph says
The calls were a little annoying but if it were your child I’m sure you would have a different attitude.
Jack says
I think it’s crap that you called my cell phone twice late at night and woke up my whole house! I pay my cell phone bill not the government or sheriff Manfre! It’s not my problem that someone can’t parent there kid correctly! This kid should have to do community service to pay for and the people looking for him and send everyone letter! They should have to do parenting classes!
Emile says
I complained to the sheriff’s department and they called back to explain why the notification went out. There is no way to opt out of these calls except by opting out of everything. So I had to cancel my registration for Code Red.
April says
Wow I can’t believe all of the negative posts about this! God forbid it was your kid you would want the whole county to be searching. I’d have to assume either you don’t have children or if you do are so selfish that this would only be a good thing for you if it happened to you or your family! Thank you FCSO I hope I never need this service but in the event I am its comforting to know you reach out to every available resource