Photo: Getty Images
DANA POINT (CNS) - A 3-year-old boy and his 16-year-old cousin who were the subject of an Amber Alert out of Tennessee were found safe today in Dana Point.
According to the Orange County Sheriff's Department, deputies received a tip from a ``concerned resident'' around 8:50 a.m. Thursday about a boy matching the description of 3-year-old Noah Clare. Responding deputies found the boy and his cousin, Amber Clare.
The boy's father, Jake Clare, 35, who is from Kentucky, was taken into custody.
Authorities in Tennessee said Clare took the children Nov. 6 from Gallatin, Tenn., prompting the search and eventually an Amber Alert.
Earlier this week, investigators said Clare's car had been found in San Clemente.
Dana Point resident Julia Bonin told reporters at a news conference that she was taking her son to his sixth-grade classes Thursday morning when she saw three people matching the description of the suspect and the missing children.
Bonin said she follows the sheriff on social media and saw the alerts about the missing children.
``You just have to trust your instincts and gut,'' she said. ``I almost didn't act on it.''
She said she spotted them about 8:40 a.m. and called 911 about 10 minutes later.
She had planned to volunteer at her son's school but as she pulled up to the school to let her son out, she said, ``I looked at my son and said, `I have to go back and make sure.'''
She drove back to the location where she saw them walking, on Pacific Coast Highway near Doheny State Beach, got out of her car and took a photo of them, which she compared to the images from authorities on social media. She said that when she dialed 911, she was ``apologetic'' because she thought she might be mistaken. But her suspicions were confirmed minutes later when authorities converged on the beach and took Clare into custody without incident. Sheriff Don Barnes described Clare as ``cooperative.''
Bonin said the children appeared to be in ``good spirits'' and that she ``sat on the beach, watched the waves; it was a beautiful moment.''
``They are both safe and healthy,'' Barnes said, adding that the custodial parents were headed to California.
Barnes praised Bonin for acting on her hunch, and even more so for not confronting the suspect, but instead waiting for police to respond. ``It's not every day we get on the news and say, `Guess what, we got them.'''