Michigan teenager Troy Coleman told his grandfather he was going to the store. That was on May 17. Six weeks later, the 17-year-old still hadn't returned to his home in Flint. Troy was finally found July 4 across the country in Miami, Florida, thanks to a random encounter on the street: He walked into a video gamer's livestream, per WNEM. Twitch streamer FaZe Lacy, who counts 740,000 followers, was recording when Troy, wearing swim trunks, suddenly greeted him. A viewer recognized Troy and alerted his brother. The family contacted the streamer and Miami Beach Police and a reunion was arranged. So what happened during those two months?
Troy claims he took a Greyhound bus to Atlanta with $600 but no possessions, was robbed, then made his way to Miami, Troy's father, Weston Coleman, tells People. He says he was "looking for famous people." Before his disappearance, Troy's high school had contacted his family about internet searches related to travel to Florida. Weston Coleman says he'd been keeping a close watch on his son after that. When he returned from a dentist appointment and was told Troy had gone to a store, he knew something was wrong. After finding computer searches about Key West, he searched for seven days in that city, to no avail.
"I didn't quit looking for him the whole time," says Coleman. It was "a lot of nights, a lot of days" and he began to think his son might be dead. But after the livestream, police were "pounding on my door saying that they found him," he says. The teen, said to be dealing with psychological issues, was reportedly arrested twice in Miami Beach for petty theft of food and sleeping in a park but refused to give authorities his real name. Missing parts of his skin from sunburn, he was hospitalized in Florida and later in Michigan as well, per People. "I'm just glad he's alive at this point and now can't believe we found him," his father tells the outlet. As Lacy noted in a July 4 post, "The power of the internet is insane." (More missing person stories.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
