Police in Wyoming overnight found a 3-month-old child reported abducted from South Salt Lake.
At 1:45 a.m. Thursday, the Wyoming Highway Patrol stopped a car carrying the infant and the baby’s mother near Lander. The child’s father, who also was listed as a suspect in the Amber Alert, was located near downtown Salt Lake City and also is in custody, according to a news release for South Salt Lake police, who issued the Amber Alert about 10 p.m. Thursday. The alert was canceled when the baby was found.
Utahns who signed up for Amber Alerts received an emergency notification to their cellphones telling them of the alert and then only a “gry Toyt.” Emails and other alerts explained police believed the biological parents suspected of abducting the child might be traveling in a gray Toyota or a Chevy Malibu. Those other communications also gave the names and descriptions of the infant and parents.
South Salt Lake police Sgt. Gary Keller said a court had granted custody to the baby’s paternal grandparents. Then, about 8 p.m. Wednesday, Keller said, the father sneaked into the grandparents’ home through a window, opened a door and let the mother into the residence. She took the child, Keller said.
Keller didn’t know why cellphone users received the vague alert. South Salt Lake sent information to a state agency that is responsible for the transmission, and Keller didn’t know where the problem occurred.
Keller expected the text alert to be a topic in the debrief that follows every Amber Alert.
“Every time we have one of these we go through all that and examine the good and examine the bad," Keller said. "I’d like to say we’re proficient at this, but I’m glad that we’re not.”
By Thursday morning, “Toyt” was trending on Twitter in Utah.