MOORPARK : 3-Hour Search Finds Boy Safe With Mom

A report that a 6-year-old Moorpark boy was missing sent more than 15 deputies, a helicopter and a police dog on a three-hour search Thursday morning before the boy was found safe with his mother, a Sheriff’s Department spokesman said.

Nicholas Darabi was reported missing about 8:30 a.m. after he did not show up at Mountain Meadows Elementary School in Moorpark. His grandmother contacted police after receiving a call at the family home from the boy’s teacher, said Sgt. Keith Parks of the Sheriff’s Department Moorpark division.

Parks said the grandmother was not told that the boy was accompanying his younger brother on a preschool field trip to Ventura. It took police three hours to locate the mother and her two sons at the Ventura Harbor, Parks said.

“In a situation like this, we pull out all the stops,” said Lt. Geoff Dean, commander of the Moorpark division. “Our policy is to call in all the resources we possibly need. We can always send them back. When you have a child of 6 or 7, it’s just too critical to put it off.”

The search was called off a little after 11:30 a.m. when the boy was found, Dean said.