A 13-year-old boy with Asperger's Syndrome spent 11 days hiding on the New York subway until he was spotted by an officer who recognised him from missing person posters. Francisco Hernandez Jr fled his home in Brooklyn last month after believing he was in trouble at school.
Taking home-made sandwiches with him, he decided to hide on the D-train he normally rides during his short commute to lessons. Realising her son was missing, Francisco's panic-stricken mother Marsiela Garcia called police but said she received little help.
She and her husband decided to take matters into their own hands by putting posters around their neighbourhood and other public areas, including the subway. After five days without news, Ms Garcia asked the Spanish language media and the Mexican Consulate's office to put pressure on the police.
Meanwhile, her son was sleeping on trains and surviving on junk food he bought from news-stands along routes through Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan and the Bronx. Francisco said that on the 11th day of his disappearance a transit officer at Coney Island approached him and asked whether he was the boy on the posters.
"I just said that I'm Francisco and that's it. I just went with him," the teenager said.The boy was then reunited with his mother who said through tears: "It is my son, I love my son. He's a wonderful boy."
But commenting on the fact that Francisco was wearing the same clothes he had left the house in 11 days before she said: "When I saw my son he was like a homeless person." Francisco reportedly told his mother he had not asked anyone for help during his disappearance, which experts say is not uncommon for people with Asperger's.
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