Boy, 12, Found Safe After Wandering From Disneyland

A 12-year-old boy who vanished from Disneyland and wandered for 24 hours in search of his hotel was found Thursday after a citywide search.

Wesley J. Bergman of Windsor, in Northern California, disappeared Wednesday night while his aunt and cousin were riding the Indiana Jones Adventure, according to police.

“He left the park and thought he could find his way back,” Anaheim Police Sgt. Mike Hannah said late Thursday. “He took a couple of wrong shuttles. He basically wandered for most of the night.”

In the morning, Wesley headed back to the Disneyland area, then mistakenly hopped another hotel shuttle that he thought he recognized. He ended up in Fullerton.

“He was wandering,” Hannah said. “A citizen came up and said, ‘Are you OK?’ And he said, ‘No. I’m really lost.’ The gentleman then called police.”

Berman’s aunt, Jennifer Mead of Santa Rosa, said they last saw him about 5 p.m. when he declined to join them in the long line for a ride and said he would meet them at their room at the Penny Sleeper Inn in Anaheim.

When Mead arrived at 10 p.m. at the hotel, which is about a mile outside Disneyland, her nephew was not there, she said. (His parents were not on the trip.) Mead called Disney security officials, who began an intensive after-hours search of the 80-acre park, Disney spokesman Tom Brocato said.

“He got seriously lost. He’s only 12,” Hannah said. “He seems OK. He seems really tired. He’s obviously glad to be back where he’s supposed to be, with his aunt.”

Mead said the 5-foot, 8-inch, 160-pound boy was missing once before, during a trip to an American Indian reservation in Northern California.

“There was a whole search and rescue thing. He was gone for 13 hours,” Mead said. “The police tried to say [Bergman and a friend] ran away, but they just got lost. Sometimes the police want to turn things around.”