Scout found after 4 days
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MCGRADY, N.C. — Rescuers found a missing 12-year-old Boy Scout on Tuesday, dehydrated and disoriented from four days in the wooded mountains of North Carolina.
A rescue dog picked up Michael Auberry’s scent less than a mile from the campsite where he had wandered away from his troop Saturday. The boy’s father speculated that he was homesick and wanted to hitchhike home. The disappearance touched off an intensive search involving bloodhounds, heat-seeking helicopters and dozens of volunteers on foot.
“He saw the helicopters and heard people calling him, but he yelled back and they didn’t hear him,” said his father, Kent Auberry of Greensboro. “He’s very tired. He’s very dehydrated. But he came through this in unbelievable fashion.”
With tears in his eyes, Auberry added: “To have our son back is a tremendous blessing.”
It was not clear how the boy survived or whether he used his Scout wilderness training.
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