Video: Ga. Police Save Missing Autistic Boy in Drainage Pipe

"I have a 5-year-old child who's also on the autism spectrum, so this call hits hard for me," said a Gwinnett County police officer who helped rescue an autistic boy who wandered into a drain pipe at a park.
Dec. 19, 2025
2 min read

What to know

  • Gwinnett County police rescued a missing 5-year-old autistic boy inside a drainage pipe at a park on Nov. 15.

  • Officers traced the child’s location after spotting an opening at a fence, crawling several hundred feet into a drainage system to reach him.

  • The boy was pulled out uninjured, and police credited coordinated searching and officer persistence for the successful rescue.

Georgia police rescued a 5-year-old autistic boy last month after he became stuck in a drain park.

The incident happened Nov. 15 when Gwinnett County police received a call about an autistic boy who went missing at a park, the agency stated in a social media post. Police had searched the area for roughly 40 minutes when Officer Jacob Hughley spotted a fence near a trail that had been pulled up.

Officers investigated the area and found a nearby retention pond with a drainage pipe. When Hughley crawled through the opening, he heard the boy's moans in the pipe and called out for him.

Another officer entered the pipe and found the boy about a couple hundred feet into it. As that officer crawled through the pipe to reach the boy, a lieutenant found a drain hole cover and directed them to him.

"I got you, buddy. I got you," the lieutenant is heard saying in body camera footage of the rescue. "You went for a trip, huh?" 

The boy, who was uninjured, was pulled out of the pipe.

"It's probably a day I won't forget in my life," Hughley told WANF-TV. "I have a 5-year-old child who's also on the autism spectrum, so this call hits hard for me"

About the Author

Joe Vince
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Joe Vince

Joining Endeavor Business Media in 2018, Joe has worked on the company's city services publications. He began working at OFFICER.com as the assistant editor. Before starting at Endeavor, Joe had worked for a variety of print and online news outlets, including the Indianapolis Star, the South Bend Tribune, Reddit and Patch.com.
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