An avid gamer, 21-year-old Harry Brown has spent a large chunk of his young life on the Internet—but little did he know, his passion would payoff in the rescue of a 4-year-old girl, a world away.
The amateur detective from England is being praised for his genius use of pizza to trick a kidnapper into revealing his whereabouts.
28-year-old Virgil Henley allegedly abducted his daughter Yvette from her grandparents, and made his way to Arizona with his girlfriend and the 4-year-old girl.
Police had been on the case since May when the kidnapping occurred, but with no luck in tracking the little girl.
Performing a little investigative work of their own, Yvette’s grandparents in California discovered that Virgil had connected with Harry several years back over their shared passion for online gaming.
Desperate for any hope of seeing their sweet granddaughter again, they asked Harry to reach out to Virgil in an attempt to uncover his location.
“When Yvette was missing, it was exhausting,” said her grandpa, Gary. “I made it my mission to find her but ended up losing the two jobs I was working. I was just desperate to find her.”
Ready and willing to help, the 21-year-old supermarket employee turned part-time sleuth.
After building trust with his old online friend over the course of a couple days, Harry discovered that Virgil had been hopping cheap hotels in Arizona with Yvette in tow.
But that information wasn’t quite enough to pinpoint where they were.
In a stroke of genius, Harry kindly texted an offer to send a pizza to their hotel room.
Thankfully, the kidnapper took the bait, giving up his exaction location and room number.
To Virgil’s surprise, instead of a Papa John’s delivery man, he was greeted by the Arizona police who quickly stepped in to seize Yvette and return her safely to her grandparents.
“The police had been trying to find her since May and within two days I got his exact location,” said Harry. “I spend my life on the Internet but little did I know that talking to random people would lead to me finding this little girl.”
The unexpected chain of events has blessed him in ways he never thought possible.
“She is loving where she is now,” added Harry. “I cried so much when I saw the photos of her with her grandparents.”
“I can’t explain how much Harry helped,” said Gary of the boy’s brave rescue effort. “He was the key to everything. It is amazing to have Yvette home. In my heart, Harry saved her life. I will be forever in gratitude to him for that.”
According to Inside Edition, Harry plans to fly to California all the way from England to visit the happily reunited family.
All the praise to this kind-hearted young man who went out of his way to bring a family back together from across the globe.
