When kids go missing, every second counts in the effort to find and recover them. Thanks to the quick thinking of a gamer NYPD police officer, a missing 15-year-old has safely made it home.

Last weekend, the New York PD received a phone call that a teenager from the Upper East Side had gone missing and hadn't been heard from in several hours. The teen had disappeared from home at least once before, so the NYPD took the situation seriously and immediately began investigating for the boy's whereabouts. After checking the same location he'd previously been found in to no avail, 25-year-old NYPD officer Gary Strebel investigated at the boy's home. There, he noticed a familiar program running on the teen's computer: Discord.

Discord is now one of the leading methods of text and voice chat among gamers, and as luck would have it, Officer Strebel was quite familiar with it himself, as an avid player of Fortnite and League of Legends. The teenager's account was still logged in, and once Strebel noticed he was communicating remotely with his friends, he jotted down the teen's user ID, logged onto his own computer and account, and attempted to befriend the boy.

After accepting the cop's friend request, Officer Strebel explained that he was with the NYPD and that they were looking for the teen. After the teen confirmed that he was safe, Officer Strebel convinced him to return home, where his parents were waiting. The teen was safely reunited with his family as a result.

Thankfully, this story has a happy ending, due to Officer Strebel's quick thinking. It's not the first time that police officers and gamers have had surprisingly positive encounters, either. Following the release of Smash Bros. Ultimate, an overly rowdy group of players got the cops called on them for a noise complaint. In the end, the cops and gamers played Smash together.

Officer Strebel provided a morsel of advice for parents and adults, while discussing the case, noting that it's important to stay aware of what children are doing online. Considering that child predators have used Fortnite, as well as other games and social media platforms to try and find victims, it's good advice that should be taken seriously.

Source: NYPD Twitter, CBS