Distraught mother pleads for runaway son to return home

GEORGE TOWN: “Ang Jia Kian, please come home. All of us are looking for you. We did not mean to hurt you.”

That is the plea of housewife Tan Sok Hoon, 41, whose 12-year-old son has gone missing after he left their apartment in Bagan Jermal here at about 6am on Friday.

A close-circuit television (CCTV) camera at the apartment building showed that the boy had left his home carrying a backpack.

Tan believed Jia Kian could be upset after he was told off several times lately for not wanting to stay at home.

She said that during an outing with the family on Thursday night, Jia Kian had wanted to buy a school uniform.

“I told him that we would buy the uniform later after checking out several other shops. I even told him we would definitely return to the shop the following day to buy his pants.

“But he insisted we buy the uniform for him on that same day. It was then that I told him off for not being obedient.

She said she scolded him after returning home and challenged him to earn his own income.

“But all these happened at the spur of the moment. I cannot believe that he really left us,” she said yesterday.

Tan, who has lodged a missing person’s report with the police, said Jia Kian took his MyKad, which had been kept in her wallet.

“He walked out of the house with a backpack containing his clothes, savings, blanket and toiletries. He went out when we were still sound asleep,” she added.

Jia Kian had just completed his primary school studies and was supposed to attend an orientation day for Form One at SMK Bagan Jaya yesterday.

Tan is worried that her son could have been abducted or met with an accident.

“We have gone out to look for him all over the place, including the Butterworth bus terminal station and train station.

“I am afraid he could have boarded a train or a bus and gone elsewhere,” she said.

She said she had received several calls regarding Jia Kian’s whereabouts.

“An uncle told me that my son had bought a bus ticket bound for Malacca, while I received another call telling me he was active on Facebook,” she said.

Anyone who knows Jia Kian’s whereabouts can contact his father Cheng Hock at 012-564 0632.

North Seberang Prai OCPD Asst Comm Abdul Rahman Ibrahim confirmed that a police report had been lodged over the matter.