Strangers in Liverpool stopped everything to help mum find lost toddler
Emma Garner's post has been shared over 20,000 times
When Emma Garner's 3-year-old son Leon ran off in Liverpool town centre, her heart lurched. As she scanned the busy streets for her curly-haired son, she couldn't see him anywhere.
But luckily, hundreds of people in the street came to the distraught mum's rescue – and he was soon found. Now Emma's emotional message thanking the "old, young, teenage and the homeless" who helped search for her son has gone viral on Facebook, being shared over 20,000 times.
The message reads: "To everyone who reads this please SHARE as far as you can in the hope that I can thank with all my heart the people of Liverpool - which at the time felt like hundreds - from old, young, teenage and the homeless.
"You helped me find my boy. Leon age 3 years old. He went missing today in Liverpool City centre. My heart was broken as he ran off and out of sight and didn't come back. But the people of Liverpool, strangers who knows know nothing of me or my family stopped in their tracks to help me find him.
"As tears shed just not from me you did everything you could and I cannot thank you enough.
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"To Merseyside police, thank you. Thank you for arriving so fast. Thank you for doing everything you could to find my baby. Thank you for being so kind.
"But you THANK YOU to the people who found him, who knew he was alone and didn't leave his side until he was back with his family. I thanked all of you that I saw at the time and to those that I didn't and that read this THANK YOU....I LOVE the people of LIVERPOOL."
Leon was with his mum and siblings Emily, 11, Nathan, 10 and dad Del Rooney when he went missing. "This is something I never experienced in my life," Del told the Liverpool Echo. "The whole of Church Street stood still and everyone was like: Right what does he look like? They were not bothered about what they were doing or where they had to be it was all about Leon.
"I turned round and everyone was coming over to me. They said what’s he wearing? I said a purple Everton kit, Adidas trainers. A group of men came up and said 'three lads will go this way, three will go that way'. I just burst into tears. The support was just overwhelming. You will never get that anywhere else in the world. That was a truly remarkable experience the way the people of Liverpool cam together."
Photos: Facebook / Del Rooney
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