Missing child with autism after search by Pine Co. Sheriff’s Office

Pine Co. officials find missing child

A sheriff's office in Minnesota is celebrating a first for its agency after it used both technology and manpower to safely locate a missing child that had wandered from its campsite.

PINE CO., Minn. (FOX 9) - The Pine County Sheriff’s Office is celebrating a first for their agency after it was able to safely locate a missing child last Friday using technology that the department acquired in recent years.

Pine County missing child found

What we know:

"This technology was a lifesaver for us," Pine County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Scott Grice told FOX 9 on Monday.

Authorities say the missing boy had run off from his family's campsite in a heavily wooded area.

Deputies followed his footprints, but in just over an hour, the boy had traveled more than three miles from his family.

"The outcome could’ve been much worse," Grice said. "With the amount of bodies of water that were nearby and swamps that were nearby, if he started wandering in those different locations, very bad things could happen."

Eventually, deputies were able to locate them with the help of the Project Lifesaver tool.

The missing child was wearing a Project Lifesaver wristband.

The backstory:

The Pine County Health and Human Services runs a program that can cover the cost for families of at-risk individuals to acquire tracking wristbands.

Deputies then use another device to track the wristband by following a beeping signal that gets louder as they get closer.