Globe Columnist Jeff Jacoby son is currently missing. Information can be found at this link and has been copied below. Kudos to David Bernstein for spreading the word, and my thoughts and prayers go out to the Jacoby family at this difficult time.
Caleb Jacoby, 16, an 11th grader at the Maimonides School, has not been seen or heard from since 12:30 p.m. yesterday.
Police urge anybody with information about his whereabouts to contact them, at 617-730-2222.
Please share widely!
to post a larger (or expandable) version of the poster. I can barely read it at the size it is now.
I have a son exactly that age and who, though taller, fits that description well. I can imagine the anguish the parents are undergoing right now. They have my prayers for a safe and speedy return of their child.
MISSING PERSON CALEB JACOBY (pdf)
My son is 16 and a junior in high school, too, and could be this child’s brother in looks. Just the thought of my own not coming home from school one day makes me nauseated. I haven’t been able to think about anything else all day.
Long time, no “see”. Don’t be a stranger.
…is one of my all-time favorites.
I don’t ever blame her for stepping away from BMG, but I am always happier when she is around.
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It’s a frightening situation, particularly with the weather. But I thought it was important to share, and am heartened to see lots of people outside of this community share it on Facebook. There is reason to hope that in our interconnected world these social networks can help.
The Globe has published an update on this sad story.
The money quote (in my opinion)? The third-from-last paragraph:
Another item that caught my eye is this (emphasis mine):
Full disclosure: I ran away from home at 16, and hitchiked from Washington DC to Daytona Beach, FL (in April, so weather was not an issue).
This sounds to me like a family matter. I hope that all turns out well.
you were 16 a whole lot of years ago. How different is the world (the country, even) now? I don’t know. I suspect that one wouldn’t have as much success hitchhiking though. Nowadays if I saw a skinny young looking teenage kid with a thumb out, I might well call the cops myself.
I’m certainly not recommending it, I’m lucky nothing seriously wrong happened to me. It was a dangerous move even in 1968. Even then, some of the long-distance truckers on I95 through VA, NC, SC, GA, and FL were unsavory (most truckers then, as now, were regular hard-working regular people). The orange-juice tanker driver that was going to take me to Ft. Lauderdale dropped me off in the middle of NC at 3:00a in the morning when I declined to perform the quid pro quo that he expected in exchange for the ride. That could have been far worse.
I worked my way along Route 1 through southern Georgia to the Florida line as an unpaid helper on a furniture delivery truck making drop-offs. I entered Florida safe and dead-tired.
I’m not trying to minimize the danger of the current Brookline episode, I’m just trying to say that it sounds like a family matter. I suspect that the family prefers as little publicity as possible, and I’m inclined to agree. The child remains vulnerable to predators so long as he is on the street, and given the celebrity of his father, more publicity strikes me as meaning more danger to the child.
The fact that Jeff Jacoby has been tweeting thanks and other updates as recently as late last night (and has apparently engaged his child’s classmates in the search) suggest that this is not the case.
See: https://twitter.com/Jeff_Jacoby
In general, though I agree this appears to be more likely a runaway rather than a kidnapping, it seems perfectly understandable that the family continues to seek and welcome all help in locating Caleb as quickly as possible even if that means “more publicity.”
I read it on Twitter. Details not released yet.
I hope he is OK and the family must be incredibly relieved.