Toddler's scary adventure

Toddler Ben Jurd is unharmed after his expedition across the suburb of Birkenhead Point, below.

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A Timaru family's holiday in Auckland was thrown into turmoil last week when their two-year-old toddler Ben vanished through a cat-flap, eluded a police search and ended up at a beach a kilometre away as dusk was falling.

Daniel Jurd and Janine Lander's adventurous youngster crawled out a cat-flap at his grandparents' home in the exclusive North Shore coastal suburb of Birkenhead Point.

Little Ben was found an hour later, safe and well apart from some minor scratches and bruises, at Chelsea Bay, near the Chelsea sugar factory.

The family can't be sure how Ben came to be at the beach, but think he toddled on foot through private property after disappearing through the cat-flap.

"Probably a minute had gone by when we noticed he wasn't there and saw the cat door had been opened," Lander told the Sunday Star-Times yesterday. "He's fast on his feet."

No one saw him crawl through, but he was small enough to fit, and because he loves hiding and exploring, the family thought he would be close by.

They frantically searched the property and nearby roads.

"We knew it was close to darkness on what was going to be a cold, wet night and that properties in the streets where we were looking did back straight on to the water," Lander said.

Soon around 30 neighbours had dropped everything to scour nearby properties, but with no sign of the little boy, police were called and a wider search began.

Lander said she was impressed – and grateful – at how everyone rallied to help in the search on Tuesday. "The police responded very quickly and did an amazing job. We feel so lucky that things worked out as well as they did."

Ben's grandmother, Leonie Lander, thanked her neighbours in a letter she distributed yesterday around the area.

When some children found Ben at the beach, he was cold and soaking wet, but unharmed. His family have been unable to get much more detail out of him, other than the words "wet", "cold", "scared" and "rocks".

- © Fairfax NZ News

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