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Breaking News

Nine-Year-Old Boy Abducted

Aired August 28, 2002 - 09:06   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, I want to get back to this developing story that we've talked about for the past hour now. Southern California, the town of Palm Desert, two hours east of L.A., an apparent abduction in middle of night inside the home of Nicholas Farber. He is nine years old, described as four feet, five inches tall, 55 pounds. Two men apparently forcing their way into a home, assaulted the boy's father, leaving in a white SUV identified as a GMC Yukon. The hunt is out right now in California. All of this happening at 2:00 a.m. local time in Southern California.
HEMMER: Listen, from Miami, right now, Don Clark's a former FBI investigator, a lot of experience in this area.

Sir, can you hear me OK?

DON CLARK, FMR. FBI INVESTIGATOR: Sir, can you hear me OK?

HEMMER: Yes, I can, Bill. Good morning.

CLARK: Good morning to you.

HEMMER: Thanks again. What is happening right now with regard to the Amber Alert. What wheels go into motion once this report is made?

CLARK: Well, Bill, this is a very good system that they've put into motion out there, and what it does is, is that whatever law enforcement entity gets the information initially, they start to put it in the computer, and with that computer system hooked up to all of these bulletin boards throughout the area, information starts to flash up. And it puts drivers, it puts citizens on notice, that, hey, something is going on. Here is minimum information, and they can update it at...

HEMMER: Tell me this, when it comes -- and we're looking at the description right now of the missing nine-year-old, Nicholas Farber, again, the young boy's name. What happens when authorities want to verify that indeed the abduction is legitimate, it has taken place, and the alert has to go out, as opposed to the big fear that we've talked about for several months right now, that comes in the cases of crying wolf. How do you make the decision there.

CLARK: Well, I think you have to go right to the source of and where the beginning takes place, and that's in home and talking to people there. And if they are saying that, look, my kid was here and of course in this case, it seems like two men attacked the father and took the kid with them. So it's not a matter of crying wolf here, and it's not a matter of the fact that the kid just wandered off. But even if the kid just wandered off, and in particular, at that young, tender age, that system that they put in place is a good one for us to help to recover them.

HEMMER: try to make a definition out of this for us, sir. We're told right now that the official Amber Alert is not necessarily in place in California, rather a missing child alert. What is the difference between these two systems?

CLARK: Well, Amber Alert is just simply one that's pretty much set for the state of California, and was probably named after a little girl who was kidnapped some time ago. There are systems across country, for example, in Texas, there are systems that are called other types -- by other names used to put information in to alert authorities that something has taken place, description of young kids or anyone missing that didn't get out to public. That is all it really is, is a system of notification.

HEMMER: Hey, listen, thanks, Don Clark, a former FBI investigator by telephone in Florida again. We'll continue to watch the case at the other end of the country in Southern California.

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