Reporting on Missing Boy, Reporter Spots Him

Early the morning after a 10-year-old boy was reported missing in Tampa, Fla., a TV reporter went to the boy's street to cover the story. Then he spotted a small boy who looked like the one reported missing. WFTS reporter Cameron Polom tells Today.com: "He's looking at me and I'm thinking, 'Could this possibly be this kid? Is this really happening?' It was a very surreal moment." Polom called out to the boy and asked his name, and then he picked him up over the neighbor's fence and carried him to nearby sheriff's deputies, at which point his family saw him and ran over to hug him, reports WFTS Tampa Bay.

The boy, Paul Ezekial Fagan, had been playing in his grandmother's backyard the previous afternoon when he says he ran off to escape the ever-constant attention of his adoring little brother. He never wandered far, yet somehow managed to avoid being seen by searching family members and then police dogs and helicopters. Polom says the boy appeared scared that he'd be in trouble when the reporter spotted him; he told Polom he'd been hiding in a neighbor's backyard and taking a "cat nap" the previous night. Paul is not hurt, according to the sheriff's office, and Polom says he is just glad he was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time. (Meanwhile, there may be a break in the case of missing UVa student Hannah Graham.)