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Abducted California Boy Found Safe After Citizens Boost Massive Search Effort

By Zachary Thomas
The 4-year-old boy whose abduction prompted last night’s AMBER Alert was found safe after law enforcement successfully coordinated a massive public search effort.

A national coalition of community watch leaders praised California Highway Patrol Captain Andrew Gregg for his exceptional leadership during the alert.

"As the commanding officer of the Los Angeles Communications Center, Captain Gregg was instrumental in uniting citizens with law enforcement to help bring Justin home safely," said Jordan Puhala, a leader of California Watch.

Her group successfully rallied nearly 5,000 Californians to join the search last night by leveraging US.Watch, a web-based platform developed for law enforcement, by law enforcement, to coordinate the public search for abducted children during AMBER Alerts.


Jordan Puhala was a top searcher during the AMBER Alert, clearing 7 areas assigned to her by law enforcement through the US.Watch platform's smart zone assignment algorithm
Members of US.Watch receive enhanced local AMBER Alerts that include a video brief, an individually-assigned watch zone, and a link to join the search on the US.Watch platform.

From there, users can navigate to their designated areas, connect with law enforcement, collaborate with other citizen searchers, and even win rewards for helping—all while tuning in to a live broadcast to stay up to date with the latest alert information, including search instructions, the current top searchers, and the most interesting user messages from the group chat.

Zach Sanders, a spokesman for US.Watch, said the record-breaking number of citizen searchers were only able to help find Justin thanks to California’s cutting-edge AMBER Alert system, which seamlessly provides citizens with real-time updates on multiple platforms.

“Within 10 minutes, approximately 140,000 Californians viewed the video brief for Justin’s AMBER Alert, and more than 4,600 joined the search,” said Sanders.


The platform’s smart zone assignment algorithm leverages nearly two decades of AMBER Alert data from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to target citizen search efforts to locations where abducted children are most likely to be found.

Users who navigate to their assigned watch zones can win rewards, such as a $100 Walmart gift card.

“Child protection is a shared social responsibility—certainly not a game," said Dr. Stacey Pearson, a former AMBER Alert coordinator for the State of Louisiana who runs The Pelican Project, a private foundation that supports national programming for missing, abducted, and exploited children. "However, alert overuse and other social problems compete for the public’s attention, so when a critical child abduction occurs, law enforcement must seek creative ways to engage the public," she said. 

The two citizen searchers who found the child jumped into action after clicking the link on their AMBER Alert.

"There was an area where [the abducted child] could possibly be, and we just started driving," recalled Raegan Dunn, who joined the search with her friend Yenny Lu.

"When I saw the car, I called the police.”

Moments before finding the abducted child, Raegan Dunn snapped a photo of her friend Yenny Lu driving to the watch zone assigned to her on US.Watch

As officers swarmed in on the vehicle, the young boy was safely removed from the car and checked for injuries. 

He was reunited with his father at the scene.

Dunn said the boy’s mother told them she was very thankful for their quick actions to report the vehicle.

Long Beach Mayor Rex Richardson released a statement on X, saying:

“Thanks to the heroic efforts of our first responders, Justin Chan has been found safe and reunited with his family. I want to recognize and thank @LBPD and @CHPsouthern for their quick response and effective coordination that led to the rescue of this young boy.” Captain Gregg's extensive law enforcement experience, coupled with his visionary leadership, has been instrumental in the development and implementation of innovative strategies to enhance public safety and protect vulnerable populations. "I'm incredibly proud of the swift and coordinated response from Californians across the Greater Los Angeles Area," said Captain Gregg, who assumed command of the Los Angeles Communications Center (LACC) in July 2022. "The success of last night's search demonstrates the power of community collaboration and underscores the importance of proactive measures in ensuring the safety of our children."

LACC is the largest Public Safety Answering Point in the State of California and third largest in the country, with over 230 sworn and civilian employees. 

LACC dispatchers answer more than 1.3 million 9-1-1 calls per year and over 2.7 million calls in total.