HARRISBURG, N.C. -- A desperate search overnight for a missing 10-year-old Cabarrus county boy had a happy ending early Wednesday morning.

Malachi Joyner said the boy disappeared at about 5 p.m. Tuesday, according to his parents. They said Joyner went for a ride on his bicycle and never came back home.

The Cabarrus County sheriff’s office started searching for Joyner at around 2 a.m. The area he went missing in is around housing developments on Affirmed Court off Rocky River Road in Harrisburg.

An off-duty Charlotte-Mecklenburg police offer found Joyner at 4:30 a.m. inside an empty home there after crews had already searched the building twice.

“He had ridden off and when he came back closer to the home, he got scared and went into the house to hide,” said Paul Hunt, Chief Deputy of the Cabarrus county sheriff’s office. “That was after we searched it and people decided to search it again. That’s what we do in these situations and luckily, he was there.”