A British teenager who attempted to commit suicide was saved by police after a Facebook user on the other side of the Atlantic raised the alarm. The depressed 16-year-old boy had been chatting to a girl in Maryland, USA, on the social networking website when he told her he was about to kill himself.
Fearing for his life, the American girl alerted her mother, who then sparked a string of emergency messages between Maryland Police, the White House in Washington, the British Embassy in Washington, Scotland Yard and finally Thames Valley Police. Despite being armed with only the troubled teenager's name and the fact he attended a school in Oxfordshire, detectives managed to narrow his location down to eight potential addresses in the area.
Teams of police sped to each of the properties. At the fourth property, on the outskirts of Oxford, they found the teenager barely conscious in his bedroom, where he had apparently taken an overdose. The youngster was rushed to hospital where, three hours after he posted the online cry for help, he was miraculously revived and made a full recovery.
Oxfordshire police commander Chief Supt Brendan O'Dowda praised those on both sides of the Atlantic who were involved in the rescue. He said: "When it did find its way to Thames Valley Police, it would have been quite easy for any number of people to decide there wasn't enough information.
"We really didn't have much to go on. It was just scant information. But due to the tenacity and professionalism of a number of people, we managed to pin down a number of addresses, then went through the painful and laborious process of visiting the addresses to find the lad.
"It took up time and effort but it was time and effort absolutely well spent."
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