An Amber Alert was short-lived Friday afternoon. Iowa City Sergeant Doug Hart says police were contacted by a woman early on Friday. Her boyfriend had taken her son, Colin Flynn, to the Coral Ridge Mall, with the understanding that they’d be home later in the evening. When they didn’t come back, she called police about 2 A.M. and as they talked police got an idea that the boy might be in jeopardy. The man is not the boy’s father. Sergeant Hart says police began by having a long talk with the mother. Police put out some local notices attempting to locate the man, and had ideas for some places he might be found in Des Moines. But none panned out, and as time went by with no contact, their concerns grew deeper. The sergeant says there are strict criteria for what kind of case will qualify as an Amber Alert.He says not every incident is going to qualify, but he’s glad this one did — because within a short time someone who’d heard the Alert called police to say they’d heard the description of a car involved, and had spotted it. The man and boy were found in an industrial area on Iowa City’s south side Friday afternoon… They were in the 900 block of Hollywood Boulevard, and they were in the car. Hart says police were continuing to investigate just what happened while the two were missing, but the child was reunited with his mother, who was described as “just ecstatic.” The man, identified as 29-year-old Joshua Moore, was being held on a parole violation and a charge of third-degree kidnapping on Friday night.
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