Would someone from the Amber Alert system explain to me why it was necessary to ring my telephone at 4:30 a.m.? I realize that a young lady was missing and had to be found, but what did they expect me to do? At 72 years old, I don’t feel safe wandering the dark streets looking for a lost soul. The next thing you’d hear is an alert looking for this old guy.

Everybody knows that when the phone rings in the middle of the night, it’s got to be bad news. My wife and I both thought that something had happened to her elderly mother and were relieved to find out it was an Amber Alert, but it still scared the “you know what” out of us. With all that adrenalin flowing, I never did get back to sleep.

We were both glad to hear, on the morning news, that the missing girl had been found. I hope she’s well and has learned a lesson.