An Amber Alert involving a baby girl believed to be abducted in southern Ontario was not transmitted to cell phones across the province early Thursday, provincial police said as they investigated what went wrong.
The alert was sent out just before 3:30 a.m. for a three-month-old girl who was last seen with her father in Roseneath, Ont., northeast of Cobourg, Ont.
The baby girl was later found safe and her father was taken into custody, police said.
Ontario Provincial Police said that there was an issue with transmitting the Amber Alert to cellphones provincewide.
“OPP is aware that an Amber Alert message was not transmitted to all cell phones across the province,” spokesperson Gosia Puzio wrote in an email.
“The Amber Alert was successfully received by those in the area where the child had last been seen prior to her abduction.”
Puzio said police were investigating what happened.
“We are working to determine the cause of problem and ensure it is resolved as quickly as possible,” she said.
OPP did not provide details on which parts of the province did not get the alert.
Amber Alerts are issued provincewide to cell phones and media outlets to help solicit public assistance in the search for a child who is believed to be abducted and at risk of imminent harm.
LTE-connected and compatible cellphones and other wireless devices receive Amber Alerts through Alert Ready, the country’s emergency alerting system.
The Amber Alert system was adopted in Ontario in 2003.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 24, 2023.
