Help Locating Your Child
Call Us Anytime …
During normal business hours 9 AM- 5 PM PST – CALL 800.899.8585
After hour or in emergencies – CALL 714.898.9696
If it is a TRUE EMERGENCY Dial 911
West Shield can help you locate the child if he/she has run away from home, their treatment program, or before a scheduled transport.
West Shield has many years of experience in successfully locating and recovering runaway teens or missing children, whether they may be in the United States or abroad.
What do I do once I find my Child has run away?
8-STEP RUNAWAY A KIT
- Immediately Contact Local Police Department and ask for the name of the officer or Detective in charge of the case.
- Retrieve a minimum of 5 recent photos of your child in a digital format.
- Retain a Private Investigation Service that “Specializes” in Runaway Location.
- Check their room for clues. Did they take their cell phone, camera, or leave a notebook with plans on how to run away and their motives? Looking at what they took and left behind is a strong clue on their motives and where they may have gone, so keep a piece of paper and write down anything strange.
- Ask as many of their friends as you can. Even if they didn’t seem close to someone, ask. Most kids know better then to hide at their best friend or partners house because that’s the first place to look and they most likely would be in the company with a trusted adult or acquaintance. They might even stay with a relative that is not close to the family
- Look through all possible ways of communication. Is their cell phone their prized possession? They might still carry it, try to call it, though they might not have brought it because you could track them, they may have bought a new one. Many kids have a Myspace or Facebook maybe an aim, or email. Try to check if they’ve recently logged on or updated something, possibly giving clues to where they have gone. If they have recently logged on to an account, you can track the IP to find them, or you can make a fake account and pretend to be someone who lives far away and try to befriend the teen and get information.
- Put yourself in their shoes. Try to figure out why they ran away. It may of been a silly reason or an extremely serious matter, but don’t doubt any possibilities. Look for unusual places, if they’re trying to stay a runaway they wouldn’t go to a normal hangout. Look in abandoned buildings, under bridges. Write down a list of ANY and EVERY possible location. And search all of them.
- Keep others informed. Make posters, hang them everywhere. Go door to door and ask if they’ve seen them, make sure everyone knows that they are missing and you really need to find them, make an online forum about this and tell everyone to spread the word.
Why use a private investigation firm?
PROFESSIONAL KNOW BEST HOW TO FIND A RUNAWAY TEEN
It’s impossible to truly understand how a parent feels when a child runs away, but it’s safe to assume that you’ll be scared, angry, confused and/or depressed.
The first 48 hours are often the most crucial when it comes to runaway and missing children. Our professional and experienced investigators make it their business to be able to find people absolutely as quickly as possible.
- Law enforcement takes missing children very seriously, as do we.
- Using West Shield can add another level of assistance in a situation where time is an extremely critical element.
- Having West Shield’s resources at your disposal might make the difference in finding your child right away.
- West Shield has the ability to dedicate personnel to finding your child.
- Police departments have a large number of resources, those resources are sometimes stretched thin.
- Will they be able to focus only on your child?
- You need someone who will work on finding your missing or lost child consistently, diligently, and quickly without distractions.
- Working with West Shield as well as the police department has other advantages.
- For example, our investigators are not hampered by crossing jurisdictional lines or having to deal with any internal police politics.
- West Shield can get information from many different locations without dealing with jurisdictional matters.
- We can save valuable time in a missing child investigation
West Shield’s highly skilled professionals are trained for find your Child
WHAT WE DO, AND HOW WE DO IT!
West Shield has many years of experience in successfully locating and recovering runaway teens or missing children, whether they may be in the United States or abroad.
We are knowledgeable of the Hague Convention that may exist in foreign operations and will closely with other legal, government and investigative professionals to assist us in the recovery phase if applicable.
International abduction cases can be complicated and frustrating. West Shield is both diplomatic and tactful in the handling of international affairs and special Ops. We activate associates and advisors to assist us in the recovery of missing children. We have a stellar reputation for professionalism and confidentiality, protecting the interests of our clients at all times.