Missing 11-Year-Old Brooklyn Boy Found Safe On Subway
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- An 11-year-old Brooklyn boy who had been missing for more than four days has been found.
Kareem Granton was found Monday morning at the Union Square subway station after a woman spotted him on the No. 4 uptown train.
The woman notified Officer Dennis Grimm, who was patrolling the platform with his police dog, a German Shepard named Dakota.
"She saw me and said, 'Officer, I think the boy on the train is by himself. He looks like the missing boy from the news,"" Grimm said.
When Grimm boarded the train, he said he found Kareem dozing off in a seat. With Dakota's help, Grimm said he was able to get the boy off the train.
"My canine is very friendly. He nudged up against him," Grimm told 1010 WINS' Juliet Papa. "He was playing with the dog, I think it made it a lot more comfortable for him."
After asking him a few questions, Grimm discovered Kareem had been missing. He called in that the boy had been found, and Kareem's family was notified.
Missing 11-Year-Old Brooklyn Boy Found Safe On Subway
Kareem disappeared last Wednesday after his mother, Precious Granton, said he visited a friend in their apartment building at 400 Williams Avenue in East New York.
His mother was grateful to be reunited with her son.
"I was happy. I wanted to be jumping like I won a million dollars," Granton, who said she plans to punish the boy, told CBS 2's John Slattery.
"I want to say thank you ... for the lady that found him and called. Thank you so much."
Granton said her son left their third-floor apartment without permission to play video games with Melinda Pulliam's son on the fifth floor.
"He checked the hallway to see if his mom was here because he knows he wasn't supposed to be here," Pulliam said. "He left, went down the staircase, and that was it."
Kareem admitted he'd run off in anger.
"I just had a tantrum, a type of anger problem," he told Slattery. "So I just wanted to express it in a different way."
Grimm said Kareem told him he went to the mall Wednesday at Barclays Center with a friend, but the two became separated.
"He got lost and has been on the train since then," Grimm said.
Authorities said despite riding the rails for five days, the boy appeared to be in good physical condition
"He looked tired and hungry," Grimm said. "We took him to get something to eat at McDonald's. ... He perked up a lot after he ate. He was playing with the dog, petting the dog."
Neighbors of the boy said he had run off before, but never for so long. A family spokesperson said that wasn't true.
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