An Amber Alert has been issued for a 23-year-old man and two young children he’s suspected of abducting today from the Burien Library.

King County sheriff’s investigators believe Michael Riley III violated a court order and took his 7-month-old son, Jamier Riley, and his ex-girlfriend’s 2-year-old son, Jermiah Watkins.

Investigators say he stole his ex-girlfriend’s car while the two children were inside.

Riley is believed to be driving a green 1994 Lexus, with Washington license plate 299UOM.

Riley is described a black, 5 feet 10 and 150 pounds, with brown eyes. He’s believed to have gang …

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If you’ve ever been tempted to leave your child in a car while you just run into a business or a friend’s home for quick errand, you could find yourself defending yourself in court.

Both state statutes and local ordinances penalize drivers who leave children unattended in a vehicle, say police and prosecutors.

A Puyallup-area mother this week learned a difficult lesson about what can go wrong when she left her 16-month-old daughter in a car seat in an idling car while she dropped off her older daughter at daycare.

The woman said her daughter, who suffers from a serious …

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UPDATE: The Amber Alert has been canceled.

The boy was located at his home by Mason County police.

– Earlier story below –

An Amber Alert has been issued for eight-year-old Tommy Farmer, missing from Belfair.

Police are searching for a blue or green older-model Ford Contour.

According to amberalert.com, Tommy’s father left the boy in his car while going into a gas station. When the father returned, his son was missing.

Tommy is described as blond, four feet tall and weighing 72 pounds. He was last seen wearing a brown coat, black pants and eyeglasses.

We will …

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UPDATED: 8:25 p.m.

A woman was found dead today in a University Place home, and her 9-month-old daughter is missing, the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department said. An AMBER Alert was issued just before 7 p.m. today.

Police are looking for 23-year-old Joseph Lester. He is driving a blue or purple 1992 Chevrolet Caprice with the license plate ADP3753. The car has a loud exhaust system and large rims, the Sheriff’s Department said.

Lester is a 5-foot, 8-inch black male. He weighs about 155 pounds. He has brown eyes and black hair, which he wears in braids.

“At …

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Police said a 4-year-old boy who was the subject of an Amber Alert today was found safe in Bonney Lake and returned to his mother.

His father was arrested after officers found the man’s vehicle behind a strip mall near Fred Meyer in the 21100 block of state Route 410.

The mother told police that the boy’s father showed up at a Chehalis crisis center and forcibly took their son.

Chehalis police tracked the man’s whereabouts via cell phone and alerted Bonney Lake officers to his location.

UPDATE: The boys have been safely found in Montana. The Amber Alert has been canceled. Find a little more here.

PREVIOUS POST: An Amber Alert has been issued for three young boys who were taken tonight from a home in the Spokane area.

Investigators are  searching for 6-year-old Bishop Phillips, 8-year-old Dawson Phillips and 10-year-old Kaleb Phillips. All three boys have blond hair and blue eyes.

Their father, 33-year-old Chad Phillips, does not have custody of his sons and is believed to be heading east with them, possibly to Indiana.

Their vehicle is described as a 1996 dark green …

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A man who prompted an Amber Alert last week by taking his children from Joint Base Lewis-McChord now is charged with two counts of first-degree custodial interference.

Pierce County prosecutors on Friday filed the felony charges against Alan Ray Fish in Superior Court.

They contend Fish, 35, violated the terms of an emergency protection order obtained by his estranged wife by taking his 4- and 5-year-old sons from her home on base Wednesday and driving them to Oregon.

He was arrested in Salem without incident the same day and the boys were returned to Washington.

Fish remained in …

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They’re good theater, but don’t do a whole lot, according to this Boston Globe article.

Here’s a snippet:

In the first independent study of whether Amber Alerts work, a team led by University of Nevada criminologist Timothy Griffin looked at hundreds of abduction cases between 2003 and 2006 and found that Amber Alerts – for all their urgency and drama – actually accomplish little. In most cases where they were issued, Griffin found, Amber Alerts played no role in the eventual return of abducted children.