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AMBER Alert canceled for 9-year-old Hickory boy

HICKORY, N.C. — An AMBER Alert has been canceled for a 9-year-old Hickory boy after police said he was found early Tuesday morning.

Officers told Channel 9 that Ramon Garcia became angry with his mother following an argument Monday night and ran away.

Police initially thought the boy was abducted by strangers from a trailer park in Hickory just after 9:30 p.m. Monday and spent hours searching for him. Officers said they searched more than two dozen trailers for the boy.

Officials said Ramon was hiding from his mother in a large tractor tire in a wooded area near the home and came out of hiding around 4:40 a.m. Tuesday.

Initially, police said he was last seen at the Saint Stephens mobile home park in Hickory around 9:30 p.m. Monday. Officers said family members told them that the boy was inside the trailer with his sister when his mother went to visit another trailer.

Police said when she came back, her son was gone.

AMBER Alerts can only be issued for children 17 years old or younger that police believe to have been abducted. They are not issued if the child is believed to be a runaway or voluntarily missing.

The North Carolina Center for Missing Persons is the only agency that can activate an AMBER Alert and will do so only at the request of an investigating law enforcement agency. It is then the responsibility of the Center to determine whether there is sufficient identifying data to justify AMBER Alert activation. For instance, there must be sufficient descriptive data on the child, abductor and/or abductor's vehicle for the public to be on the lookout for something.