Tracking tool used to find autistic boy

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - A 13-year-old autistic boy is safely home again after he ran away from his house on the east side. The incident was the first time local search and rescue crews were able to use a new locating device. They said the tool -- called Project Lifesaver -- worked just as it was supposed to.

Paul and Letha McNeely said their son Jacob is prone to running away. It happened again Sunday night around 5:25.

"He didn't have his coat on and it scared me to death. I thought, 'Man, it's cold out there.' It was really cold last night," said Letha.

Jacob said his legs took him running away.

"A thought came in my legs. I tried to stop ‘em but they wouldn't listen to me," said Jacob.

The good news in the midst of a frightening ordeal was that they had become part of something called Project Lifesaver.

"When I arrive on the scene, I'm either going to hear absolutely nothing or I'm going to hear a tone. And that tone is pulsing every one second. And when I hear that, all I have to do is point my antennae in the direction of where that signal's coming from and walk on that and it should take me right to that individual," said Captain Michael Pruitt of the Wayne Township Fire Department.

The signal comes from a wristband, like the one Jacob now wears at all times.

Forty-five minutes after they got the call, searchers found Jacob at the corner of Sherman and New York. He was a mile away from home.

"There were so many policemen and so many fire trucks out here trying to look for him, but the meter is what did it," said Letha.

Captain Pruitt, who oversees the program for Marion County, said many of the individuals taking part in Project Lifesaver are children with autism, like Jacob.

For more information, contact Project Lifesaver at 246-6273.