
DATE: Tuesday, July 1, 1997                 TAG: 9707010245

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY TOM HOLDEN, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   90 lines

BEACH PATROLLERS HAVE BUSY TIME - FINDING MISSING CHILDREN POLICE URGE ADULTS TO KEEP YOUNGSTERS IN SIGHT AND STOP A DANGEROUS TREND.

With the hectic July Fourth holiday looming, the Virginia Beach Life Saving Service on Monday issued an urgent plea for parents and caretakers to keep a close watch on children they take to the beach.

Last weekend, the service took reports on 65 missing children - nearly four per hour - a rate that had lifeguards, to say nothing of some parents, in a near-constant state of anxiety.

All of the children were found, safe, and reunited with their relatives or caretakers. But with the busy summer season barely under way, the lifesaving service and the Virginia Beach Police Department decided it was best to remind people now that children can easily wander.

``It used to be kind of rare that we would get these reports, but now we get them every day,'' said L. Kirk Liebold, a first lieutenant with the lifesaving service and a 21-year veteran of the strand.

``It's easily the most stressful part of our job.''

Last weekend's total was not a record, but each year the number of children reported missing grows. During last year's July Fourth holiday, the service reported 128 children missing. It's a terrifying experience for some of them, who are found crying, almost incoherent from fear, and unable to tell authorities their age or name.

Most children are not so distraught, and many don't even realize they're lost until they look up and realize Mom and Dad are gone. But none would have wandered off if those parents had paid closer attention.

``Kids are a full-time job at home,'' said Robert F. Putz, a 34-year-old sergeant with the lifesaving service who patrols the beach driving a four-wheeler. ``Just because you're on vacation doesn't mean you're free from the kids.''

In the 30 minutes that Putz and his colleagues spent talking about the problem Monday afternoon, their two-way radios crackled with reports of two more missing children, an 8-year-old girl and a 9-year-old boy. Quick work reunited them with their parents.

Mike Carey, a spokesman with the Virginia Beach Police Department, said the number of children reported missing has grown during each of the past four years. So far this year, 118 have been reported missing; last year, the total was 590. In 1995, it was 428 and in 1994 it was 390.

It's not that the lifesaving service or the police mind helping lost children, they insist, but the problem can be reduced by parents being more attentive and resisting the temptation to think the resort is a big sandbox.

``A lot of times, people will walk to a pay phone, dial 911, and say they last saw their child in the water,'' said William S. Kiley, deputy director for the city's Department of Emergency Medical Services.

When that happens, he said, it can trigger a massive response by lifeguards and police who must assume the child is lost in the water, even when he or she may simply be walking down the beach.

Even when the report is less ominous, lifeguards must still take time out to find the children when they should be watching swimmers. Sometimes, adults don't even know what the children are wearing, when they last saw them, or what street they're camped near.

Police Officer Erol Bashekimoglu, a nine-year veteran, has dealt with so many lost children that he routinely carries a small plastic Batman figurine in his all-terrain vehicle to help calm the lost children he finds.

``The first time I went through this I was really scared for the kids,'' Bashekimoglu said. ``You don't want this to happen to them. I got into this job because I like people and I don't want anything bad to happen to people.''

Still, looking for lost children can take up to two hours of his day.

``If it weren't for the lifeguard service, it would take even more,'' he said. ILLUSTRATION: Drawing

JANET SHAUGHNESSY/The Virginian-Pilot

Graphic

KEEPING KIDS SAFE

Watch your children carefully.

Tell your children where they can find you if they get lost.

Use a landmark - a hotel, for example - as a meeting place.

Remember what your child is wearing.

Stay together.

Don't panic.

Read the rules at the lifeguard stands.