Police say missing student Connor Sullivan was not actually missing at all, and they’re looking into whether or not he and his family can be charged for the costly search and rescue effort they launched.
The 17-year-old track-and-field star *mysteriously* vanished from his Cupertino California high school last week, and everything came to a virtual standstill as the panicked community mobilized to find him.
Days later, Sullivan quietly returned to his worried parents, confessing that he intentionally eluded searchers by hiding on Monta Vista High School grounds, and survived there by eating fruits, drinking from water fountains, and using portable potties.
That’s infuriated law enforcement and others who truly believed the youth was missing and feared the worst may have happened to him, since he’d never before up and disappeared.
It’s not clear why the teenager perpetrated the hoax, or if he simply has emotional problems, but whatever the motivation was, “He did not want to be found,” says Sergeant James Jensen, of the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office.
So -- fair’s fair -- police are now exploring whether they can claim restitution for last week’s unnecessary and expensive manhunt, either from the family of Connor Sullivan, or from the boy himself.
