WA Police successfully used an 'emergency alert' system to locate three-year-old boy Joseph, who went missing when he was trapped in the back of his stolen family's vehicle this afternoon.
A text message with details of the abduction was sent out to more than 250,000 recipients - in a unusual step.
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Three-year-old Joseph found after two hour ordeal
A full scale police search was launched on Friday afternoon after a car was stolen from a Perth home with a toddler still inside.
"A member of the public who had received the alert noticed the vehicle and as per the alert message they phoned 000 and advised police," police spokesperson Samuel Dinnison said.
"Emergency Alert sends voice messages to landline phones and text messages to mobile phones within a defined geographic area... it can be used in any life threatening emergency."
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The alert was sent out after the blue 2013 Subaru Impreza had been stolen from outside a Westminster Street home- with Joseph sleeping in the back seat.
The driver rammed through a picket fence at the front of the home while escaping.
WA Police commenced a massive search for the missing boy, and sent out the vehicle's details to thousands of nearby residents.
The car was later found abandoned in an East Victoria car park on Gloucester Street, with Joseph sitting unharmed in the back seat.
He has since been reunited with his family.
Police said they had commenced a search for the culprit.Â