Police step in to rescue 9 year old walking 18km home after fleeing abuse

Police in the Isaan province of Udon Thani came to the aid of a vagrant nine year old boy attempting to walk 18 kilometres back home. The boy fled his home due to an allegedly abusive father and was living alone in an abandoned house.

On Tuesday, April 18, a 31 year old officer from Chai Wan Police Station, Anusorn Homhuan, rushed to help a driver whose car was broken down on the Baan Kham-Baan Kham Ror Road. While travelling back to the police station, the officer spotted a little boy, later identified as Beer, walking barefoot on the road.

Anusorn stopped to speak to Beer and learned about the child’s situation. He offered to give Beer a ride home but was saddened to discover that the boy was living alone in a house with no pillows, blankets, furniture or electric appliances.

Beer told Anusorn that he ran away from his father’s house to live alone because he abused him and did not let him go to school. He told the officer that he had to sneak out early in the morning if he wanted to go to school. So, he ran away from home.

Beer said he survived by asking for food from his local temple and community, and sometimes he earned 50 to 60 baht by watering plants for his teacher.

Anusorn reported Beer’s situation to community leader Somsak Seerawong, who arranged for the boy to stay with his grandfather, monk Sompharn Dewadhammo, at Phuttha Sattha Ram Temple.

The grandfather monk, Sompharn, gave an interview with Channel 3 yesterday. He explained that Beer had only recently come to stay with him before leaving the temple. He said Beer might have been upset because he told him he could not play in the temple pond out of worry about drowning.

Beer later spoke to the media and said that he wanted to go to school and play with his friends. So, he escaped from the temple and was on his way to meet his friend at the abandoned house.

Sompharn stated that Beer’s father, Champ, divorced his wife a long time ago. He remarried and had two children and Beer was expected to babysit his father’s new children.

Sompharn added that he would take the best care of Beer because he believed that he was the reincarnation of his father. He explained that Beer remembered things from his past life when he was younger and had the same habits as his father.

Chai Wan Police Station superintendent Rattapon Pensongkram visited Beer and Sompharn at the temple yesterday. Rattapon reported that Beer was a good student and loved learning. He added that he would help Beer find a school nearby the temple and buy him a bicycle to travel to school.