For hours one Friday last month, Michelle Sarokas and her husband had no idea where their 12-year-old son, Saylor, was. His wallet and cell phone were in their Gilbert home, but his flip flops were missing. That’s when they called the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department.
“We didn’t know what happened; it was the scariest day of my life,” Sarokas said. “It just provided so much comfort for someone to come in and they were taking over the situation and it was okay.”
Within minutes, an organized search effort was underway for Saylor. It turned out to be a false alarm, but it taught Saylor to trust law enforcement.
“They care if something goes wrong, they’ll be there to help,” he said. “If something happens, they aren’t going to blow it off like nothing happened, they’re going to come.”
According to Sarokas, the experience also taught her how helpful and how dangerous social media could be to a child.
“That is such a blessing and a curse and it’s one that the Sheriff’s Department really has a handle on,” she said. “They were thinking things through, thank goodness, that we had never even thought of.”
Sarokas urged all parents to monitor what their children are doing online and says while scary, those few hours made them feel safer here in Lexington County.