THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 21, 1996 TAG: 9604190244
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JENNIFER BENNETT, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Medium: 100 lines
Friday April 12 was a beautiful spring day for most people. Showers of sun poured down instead of rain. But Kathy and Greg Gerber remember it as the worst day of their lives.
On the same day he had learned how to ride a bicycle, their 5-year-old son, Asa, disappeared as he practiced his riding.
He was missing for hours - from afternoon until well after dark - before a police officer found him and brought him home unharmed.
Over a period of several hours Asa rode a bike from the family's home in Land's End Condominiums off Norfolk Avenue near Birdneck Road to the Loop at the south end of Atlantic Avenue.
The Cooke Elementary School kindergarten student was a little vague about some of the places he traveled during his spree, but he did tell his mother that he rode to his school and didn't like it when he found the doors locked and everyone gone.
Kathy Gerber said the response from Virginia Beach Police and her own neighbors was remarkable.
At about 4:30 that afternoon she told her son it was time to stop riding. He had just learned how to ride in anticipation of getting a bicycle of his own for his birthday on the following Friday, April 19. Instead of coming when called, Asa pulled away from her and rode around the corner. Minutes later she sent her 10-year-old son Joshua to fetch Asa. Joshua came back empty handed.
Gerber, 36, was alarmed. Even though she kept telling herself she was over-reacting, she called the police. It was unlike Asa she told them. He was a mama's boy and he had never ridden a bike before.
A police officer arrived at her door within five minutes.
Even though the family hasn't lived in the neighborhood long, a swarm of neighbors they had never even met were also soon sweeping through the area with fervor.
Within minutes, Gerber was accompanying the officer in a house-to-house search and could hear the dispatcher sending out word of her son over the radio on the officer's shoulder. Just 10 minutes had passed before a helicopter flew overhead, she said. Shortly thereafter, marked and unmarked police cars arrived on the scene. Police came on horses and mountain bikes, in uniforms and in plain clothes.
According to Lou Thurston, of the Police Department's media relations, 15 units were assigned to the case.
``I didn't know there were that many police on the force,'' said Greg Gerber, 31, Asa's dad. They were hopping.''
He hadn't known there was a problem until he called home to see what kind of pizza to bring. By the time he got home, the search was in full swing.
``This neighborhood came alive that night,'' said Greg Gerber. ``Hundreds of people were combing the streets.'' Concerned citizens made their way through wooded areas with flashlights.
Neighbors the Gerbers didn't know drove Kathy Gerber around and loaned her husband a bicycle for his search, she said. Others reassured and supported her with stories about their own children's wanderings.
The nervous mother waited outside her home and prayed as day drifted into night.
Greg Gerber rode the borrowed bicycle up and down paths familiar to his son, going to the school, the beach and the home of nearby relatives. All he could think about, he said, were the dire possibilities of the situation.
A police officer spotted Asa at the Loop about 8:30 p.m., according to Thurston. The officer had a picture of the boy. Her son's picture had been photocopied onto a plain sheet of paper and distributed to searchers, Kathy Gerber said.
The Gerbers said they feel grateful and blessed. For Kathy Gerber, it means even more when she remembers what happened to a friend in Pennsylvania 10 years ago.
Her friend's daughter had been missing for 48 hours before any serious search attempts were made, she said. That was too long and too late. The child was never found.
``I want people here to know how lucky they are to have police and people like this,'' Kathy Gerber said. ``I really believe in my heart of hearts he was found safe because of the police and neighbors' (immediate reaction),'' she added. ``There are many parents and families not so fortunate.''
For his part, Asa has taken everything in stride. ``I think to him it is a big open world. I think he sees what happened as an adventure,'' said Kathy Gerber.
``He did talk about some fears - going to the school and finding it locked.''
The fact that it had gotten dark while he was gone didn't seem to worry her son, said his mom. After Asa was found, Kathy Gerber said, ``I couldn't stop crying. I think that worried him. He kept trying to convince me that he had been OK the whole time. I think he was trying not to upset me any more than I already was.''
That birthday bike that Asa was expecting Friday? ``It's on hold,'' said Kathy Gerber. ``For a long time.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo by L. TODD SPENCER
Five-year-old Asa Gerber's first bike ride - from Norfolk Avenue to
the Loop at the south end of Atlantic Avenue - was an adventure for
him, a nightmare for his mother Kathy. ``I want people here to know
how lucky they are to have police and people like this,'' Kathy
Gerber said.
by CNB