Ten-year-old Ben Smythe, who went missing from his Birmingham home overnight, has been found safe and well, West Midlands Police said today.
Ben was last seen around 7pm yesterday after he left a friend's house in Riddfield Road, Bromford, Birmingham, to make the five minute walk home. He had been out playing football with his 12-year-old pal Simon Kesterton. They had then gone to a chip shop before Ben decided to walk the short distance to his home in Bromford Drive.
Police said he was found safe and well after turning up at a address in Kingstanding shortly after 2.30pm today. He has now been reunited with his parents.
A spokeswoman for West Midlands Police said they were alerted after the person at the address contacted them.
She said: "Ben was found at about 2.35pm this afternoon after turning up at an address in the Kingstanding area of Birmingham. It is not clear exactly where Ben has been since he went missing yesterday evening but he is safe and well and specially-trained officers will be speaking to him in due course to discover his whereabouts."
Officers conducted house-to-house inquiries in their search for him, as well as checking local open spaces and friends' houses to see where he might have spent the night. The police helicopter was used during the search
