***MISSING CHILD -- MANAHAWKIN -- URGENT -- PLEASE SHARE*** Michael Kevin Laforte. Age 13. 5'7". Red hair. Last seen TODAY (3/6) in Ocean Acres, Manahawkin (Stafford Township). Police are involved. If you have any information, please contact the Stafford Police Department at 609-597-8581.

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What happened to him?

no amber alert on njsp.org, nothing on Stafford PD wesite. Hope for a positive update quickly.

They found him walking down the street not very long after he went missing. Police know about it , boy is fine but probably grounded

They found him walking down the street not very long after he went missing.

 

That doesn't sound like "missing" to me.

 

I don't know what happened in this case, but the story reminds me how neurotic people have become in general.

Well , what happened was , he was very late coming from school..so his Mother posted on FB , THEN called the Police. The local towns newspaper's FB page posted about it , then was going to retract it because they only report missing persons if Police have been notified. They said " police are involved" ..so there you go. A few of his friends posted on the town FB page that they saw him here and there..etc .That is why there was no Amber Alert , I would think the police realized they had a teen that was late to get home , not really missing yet since his friends had seen him around town.

 

Apparently his mother got so frantically worried about him because he is very depressed. He had apparently said some dark things lately and was in serious counseling.

 

I really have no issues with her using FB to find a depressed teen that not home when he was suppose to be. If my 13 year old was in that kind of state and late , I would use FB to reach out to town people to see who had seen him where.

I did get that off face book from ( Hurricane News ).. I knew their are a few shooters on here from mahahawkin.

yep Me too.

 

FB can really help in a situation like this. As unfortunate as it is that most kids walk around doing mobile updates from their smart phones while they are suppose to be enjoying each other's company , it came in handy in this instance as they knew the boy was around town under his own power , and it kept them from using a very import resource ( Amber Alert) when it was not needed yet.

Glad they located him and the 13 yr. old is OK.............

They found him walking down the street not very long after he went missing. Police know about it , boy is fine but probably grounded

 

Good to hear... Thanks for the update..

Well , what happened was , he was very late coming from school..so his Mother posted on FB , THEN called the Police. The local towns newspaper's FB page posted about it , then was going to retract it because they only report missing persons if Police have been notified. They said " police are involved" ..so there you go. A few of his friends posted on the town FB page that they saw him here and there..etc .That is why there was no Amber Alert , I would think the police realized they had a teen that was late to get home , not really missing yet since his friends had seen him around town.

 

Apparently his mother got so frantically worried about him because he is very depressed. He had apparently said some dark things lately and was in serious counseling.

 

I really have no issues with her using FB to find a depressed teen that not home when he was suppose to be. If my 13 year old was in that kind of state and late , I would use FB to reach out to town people to see who had seen him where.

 

 

 

That kid needs his a** beaten, phone and internet access taken away for some period of time and apparently, more intense counseling.

I'm sure I'll get flammed for this but...

 

If you're that worried about your kid, he should have a cell phone so you can be up his a** from anywhere in the country.

 

 

I understand apparently this kid was a special case becuase he apparently said some "dark" things...whatever the hell that means. But he probably just needed some time to think and/or chill out a little.

 

Casuing a ruckus and now embarrasing him in front of everyone is only groing to drastically increase his depression if he really has any or instigate it if he didn't

I'm sure I'll get flammed for this but...

 

If you're that worried about your kid, he should have a cell phone so you can be up his a** from anywhere in the country.

 

 

 

That was my first thought, too, but I try to give the benefit of the doubt. The kid may have a cell phone but chose not to answer it. That would heighten the anxiety of the mother.

agreed, and of course we'll prebably never know the full story. I just wanted to be able to combat the "its all the kids fault always" mentality that often shows in this forum and in fact in today's society far too often IMHO.

 

Persoanlly I didn't have a cell phone until I was 17 and driving. (I'm 23 now so you know I grew up in the cell phone age) and luckily my parents were not so completely up my butt about everything I did and let me have some fun.

 

I have a very good friend who's mother was so far up his a** that he rarely got to have any fun or do anything with his friends. I'm really suprised he turned out as well as he did. That kind of situation puts a lot of stress on a kid. Just being a kid today in general is far more stressful then it was 20 years ago IMHO.

might have been an over reaction but if one of my 3 kids was a hours late I would use any means available .when my oldest was a young teen we would lend her a cell phone to be intouch with us or to arrange a ride for activities or events but under 16 they werent getting thier own

My problem is that if I had a depressed teen and I was that worried about him doing something I would make sure he is picked up and dropped off at school.

My problem is that if I had a depressed teen and I was that worried about him doing something I would make sure he is picked up and dropped off at school.

 

Correct, unless you could not get their on time and the kid skipped out...

It doesn't matter what the kid wanted or what his reason was. He was due home at a certain time and returned hours later, without ever informing his family, if you go by the little bit of info we have here.

He needs his a** beaten for coming home a little later than normal? They never specified when he was 'due' home. And also if your idea was to restrict phone access then how would he call them to tell them he's late AND notify someone if something bad actually happened?

 

Stafford is a rather safe place to live...

might have been an over reaction but if one of my 3 kids was a hours late I would use any means available .when my oldest was a young teen we would lend her a cell phone to be intouch with us or to arrange a ride for activities or events but under 16 they werent getting thier own

 

My daughter has had a cell from the time she was 3, at that time it was when she was with relatives and not with my wife or I, but I sure felt a lot better that she was and is always reachable.

 

Funniest thing, the cell she had was one with a little stubby antenna, when she was 6 we were at the store getting her a new cell, I was had the phone in my hand, looked at the chewed up antenna and looked at my daughter, she look at me and without skipping a beat said "What do you expect to happen when you give a 3 year old a phone" Wonder where she gets that smart-a** attitude from???

My problem is that if I had a depressed teen and I was that worried about him doing something I would make sure he is picked up and dropped off at school.

 

^^^^ This..

It doesn't matter what the kid wanted or what his reason was. He was due home at a certain time and returned hours later, without ever informing his family, if you go by the little bit of info we have here.

 

Of course not, kid is wrong adult is right. No reason necessary other then my belt right?

Of course not, kid is wrong adult is right. No reason necessary other then my belt right?

 

 

Now you got it.

Just like when little hood rat babies grow up in camden.

 

Their inner consience of right and wrong is irrelevant. It's what their parents do and say thats correct. always.

Without getting into a pissing contest with you, you need to understand that a 13-year old kid, in the family structure, has no rights. Zero, none, nadda, etc. He was tasked with going to school. That's his "job" and the only "job" a 13-year old should have. He should not have anything else to be concerned about. He doesn't get a vote for family situations, etc. He was to go to school and return home (or to the bus or to wherever he was supposed to go) by the time that this would normally occur. He did not. According to what we have here, he was hours late. Short of being kidnapped or involved in an abduction or accident, he has no excuse for either 1) not notify his parents/family or 2) being home when he was supposed to be. End of story. I don't understand why that's no understandable.

 

 

All that being said and reading further, it's seems this kid's elevator doesn't go all the way to the top floor. If that's the case, I need to question why he'd be tasked in going to and coming from school by himself, without direct supervision. At the end of the day, he's safe and was not harmed. That's always a good thing.

It's a shame that the world has become like this for kids. When I was 13 (or 8 for that matter) we played throughout the neighborhood. No one's parents had an itinerary of where their kid was. We got into all kinds of adventures and ended up all over town. Sometimes we got into a little trouble (fights and such) but it always got worked out, generally without the police or courts involved.

 

We had to be home at a certain time and as long as we were within a hour or so it didn't really raise any eyebrows. I wish I could raise my daughter the same way but I guess it just isn't the same world anymore.

 

Glad the kid was found safely. Hopefully the parents will get him some kind of counseling if he truly is at risk.

Oh course he has no rights, why would anyone in a society like this bring up any kids thinking they had rights? Jeeze doing something like that might just condition them to standup for themselves when someone tries to take away their rights. Who in their right mind would want that?.

It's a shame that the world has become like this for kids. When I was 13 (or 8 for that matter) we played throughout the neighborhood. No one's parents had an itinerary of where their kid was. We got into all kinds of adventures and ended up all over town. Sometimes we got into a little trouble (fights and such) but it always got worked out, generally without the police or courts involved.

 

We had to be home at a certain time and as long as we were within a hour or so it didn't really raise any eyebrows. I wish I could raise my daughter the same way but I guess it just isn't the same world anymore.

 

Glad the kid was found safely. Hopefully the parents will get him some kind of counseling if he truly is at risk.

 

 

 

I don't know how old you are, but I'm 50+ years old. Our upbringing appears to have been different than yours. If we had to be home by 5pm, our asses better damn well be in that door by 5pm, without excuses. Our parents, for the most part, always knew where we were at and who we were with. If the plans for the day changed, you'd tell the mother of the friend you were with at the time and she would call your mom to tell her. This was true for our entire block, all of which we were friends with. Everyone's mom had permission from the other moms to put your a** back in line if you needed it. If your buddy's mom saw you were doing something questionable, she'd call your mom and dime you out.

I don't know how old you are, but I'm 50+ years old. Our upbringing appears to have been different than yours. If we had to be home by 5pm, our asses better damn well be in that door by 5pm, without excuses. Our parents, for the most part, always knew where we were at and who we were with. If the plans for the day changed, you'd tell the mother of the friend you were with at the time and she would call your mom to tell her. This was true for our entire block, all of which we were friends with. Everyone's mom had permission from the other moms to put your a** back in line if you needed it. If your buddy's mom saw you were doing something questionable, she'd call your mom and dime you out.

 

Mine was more like BF's post, when I was young and living in Elizabeth we lived in a 5 story building. They wanted me home, earlier they had one of them aerosol air horns. Could her that thing all over the complex..

 

Later growing up in Avenel we had a time to be home, if we were a little late, not to big a deal but where we were, heck most of the time we didn't know where we were going to be let alone our parents. They knew what us kids were into, unlike the way it is today, if we did something wrong, we probably hurt ourselves not someone else.

 

However I must add, that while we had this a lot of freedom, we all knew we would loose it and probably not be able to sit down comfortably for a while if we screw up. Being responsible for what we did was all that was needed.

That's just it though, upbringings of you guys who are 50+ are generally different than nowadays. Not disagreeing with you at all, so don't take it that way. What was 'right' and what was 'wrong' 40+ years ago isn't the same now. Not all parents raise their children the same. Doesn't make them or their parenting 'right' or 'wrong.' Not to mention certain things that your parents and you would get away with back then as far as discipline, could land you with child services at your door and possibly jail time nowadays.