A 16-year-old Kenai boy who escaped from a juvenile detention facility in Anchorage has been found.
Tyler Sargent has been missing for nearly a week after he and another boy escaped from the McLaughlin Youth Center on Oct. 23. His mother, Crystal Locke, said she was told the two boys escaped by pushing a section of the fence down near the facility’s kitchen.
Heidi Redick, chief probation officer for the Anchorage region of juvenile justice, could not confirm, or deny, that the two boys had been found as it would be a violation of their rights as minors to do so.
Locke said Thursday that she got a call from Sargent’s probation officer saying they’d found the boy shoplifting at a store in Anchorage.
“I should not be happy that my son was caught shoplifting,” Locke said. “But I’m happy he’s caught.”