A missing toddler lost in a 100-acre cornfield was rescued by police officers thanks to the help of a drone outfitted with thermal technology.
Deputies in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, received a call about a three-year-old boy who was reported missing at night after he wandered into a cornfield that spans more than 100 acres, according to a video posted to Facebook by the Fond du Lac County Sheriff’s Office on Friday. Upon receiving the call, law enforcement immediately knew that they would need to use technology to search the massive area for the missing toddler.
The department’s Technology Response Group was called in to help with the search, allowing officers to use a thermal drone to narrow the search radius substantially.
The drone footage was shared on social media by the sheriff’s office, which showed the area as the drone pilots searched for the toddler. Several minutes into the clip, a person could be seen in a row of the massive cornfield, and just a few moments later, several rescuers could be seen heading right for the missing child.
Body camera footage was also released of the heroic rescue, showing police officers and other rescuers making their way through the never-ending rows of corn to find the toddler. One rescuer can be heard on the bodycam footage comforting the boy.
“I got ya! We got him. We’re right here, buddy. We’re right here. We’re gonna go back, and we’re gonna find your mom, okay? We’re gonna go find your parents,” the rescuer tells the boy.
After calming the boy down, the child gleefully tells the man holding him that he found a cat while he was lost in the cornfield, to which the rescuer happily responds: “Oh my goodness! How cool, huh?”
According to a statement from the sheriff’s office, the toddler had wandered roughly a half mile from his home and was not injured during the ordeal.
“Instances like these highlight the importance of technology and collaboration amongst law enforcement in our community,” the statement read. “Without the use of the thermal imaging drone, it would likely have taken deputies and other first responders hours to search the entire cornfield, and the outcome may have been different.”
More footage of the rescue shared on X shows just how tall the corn stalks are in the area where the toddler was found.
"We're right here buddy!"
Fond du Lac County Deputies and first responders find a missing 3yo boy deep into a 100+ acre corn field.
What typically takes hours on the ground, the child was found in about an hour with the help of a drone with a thermal imaging camera. pic.twitter.com/gU0tRYF5Pm
— James Stratton (@StrattonWISN) September 2, 2024
Police credited the use of the thermal drone with the quick rescue, noting in a statement to NBC 26 that the child was found in less than half an hour, as the drone “enabled us to keep the search area a little bit smaller and, in this situation, luckily, helped us find that young man.”
