Three and a half days after he ran away from a children’s home on Lantau, 10-year-old boy Ho Yau-yip has been located by the authorities and (briefly) reunited with his family.
Police said in a statement that Ho was found in a 24-hour McDonald’s in Tin Shui Wai, the district where his family lives, in the early hours of today. He sustained no injuries and was sent to Tuen Mun Hospital for examination before returning to the Hong Kong Student Aid Society’s Island Hostel in Shek Pik, where he has lived for the past six months.
Police said they didn’t detect any suspicious circumstances.
Ho, who went missing from the hostel on Sunday afternoon, was said by his mother to be “lucid, healthy and fine, but hungry”. “As soon as he saw me, he said, ‘Mummy, I really missed you!'”, she told Apple Daily.
She added that Ho claimed he had been bullied at the hostel for a long time, and didn’t want to live there. After a recent visit home for the Easter holidays, Ho was said by his mother to be “very reluctant” to return to Shek Pik, and escaped the next day after distracting staff by asking for food.
Ho’s mother told reporters that she would “seek relevant assistance” to bring her son home for good. The 10-year-old, who has dyslexia, is one of 63 children living at the home for “boys with emotional and behavioural issues”.
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