His parents had given up all hope of him ever returning alive. Imagine their overwhelming joy at receiving the news that their son, who had run away from home some 170 days earlier, had been found, hurt and in another city, but undoubtedly very much alive.
It was at around 19:00 on 15 July that police in Lianyungang of Jiangsu Province received a citizen’s report that a man was lying unconscious on the southeast side of the Renmin Bridge in the City’s Haizhou District.
That local citizen told officers at Shidong Police Station the man had come to the area approximately 10 days prior, with an air of hopelessness about him.
He then had found the man motionless inside a narrow space inside the bridge’s parapet, reports the Yangtze Evening News.
But with the man wedged in such a position, police decided to call in both the fire and ambulance services for assistance. After an hour of toil in unbearable heat and humidity, the man was successfully extracted by means of a fire rope and stretcher. It was understood that he had fainted because he had not eaten for many days.
Checking the man’s ID, police were able to determine that he was 31-year old, surnamed Li, from Xuzhou City, and that he was a missing person who ran away from home on 28 January.
Soon, the police managed to get in touch with Li’s parents. Overwhelmed with gratitude, the couple agreed to travel to Lianyungang to collect their son.
On 17 July, the two bowed to the police officers, while crying, “Thank you”, and handing them carefully-prepared pennants and candies as their expression of gratitude.
“In order to find him, we went to many places, and we were about to lose confidence. If it wasn’t for your help, we don’t know if we would see him again in this life”, said the couple.
Li’s parents reported that their son had a lively personality and excellent grades in the early days, but family conflict had impacted him, bringing on severe schizophrenia.
Running away from home many times, Li always returned after a day or 2. His parents would later discover that this time he had come close to saying goodbye to his family forever.
