Want to be alerted when a child is abducted? Consider signing up for a free program. It is easy, all you have to do is text the word AMBER followed by a space and your 5-digit zipcode to 26237.
If you don’t feel comfortable texting, you can always sign up on-line.
According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited children, the first three hours a child is abducted are the most critical to recovery efforts. This is a fantastic initiative to reach 200 million wireless subscribers. About 200-250 Amber Alerts are activated each year, and more than 400 children have been safely recovered because of the program.
This successful program was formed after the 1996 abduction and murder of 9-year-old Amber Hagerman, and targets the most serious child-abduction cases by flashing urgent bulletins across our country. According to the NCMEC, all 50 states including the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands are all participants.
