Boy's plea for help was hoax

SEQUIM, Wash., Dec. 30 (UPI) -- A child's joke led to a needless manhunt in Washington state as police feared a boy had been kidnapped.

A 12-year-old boy eating lunch with his father in a Sequim restaurant scribbled "Help Me" on a note, stuck it under his plate and left the restaurant, The Seattle Times reported Sunday.

Restaurant employees found the note and contacted police, who checked every motel and shopping center in Sequim while tracing the name of the man who paid for the meal with his credit card, police told the Times.

Six hours after getting the boy's note, police tracked the man to his home and confirmed the boy was safe and had left the note as a joke, reported the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Authorities had yet to determine whether the boy's parents must pay for the cost of the six-hour search.

"At the very least, this is going to offer one family a pretty important learning moment for a young child," said Sequim police Chief Robert Spinks.