A London postman has created an “early warning system” to help find missing children by beaming alerts to 124,000 Royal Mail delivery staff.
Vinnie Micallef came up with the idea after a nursery worker on his round asked him to look out for a missing local boy.
The 47-year-old father of three, from Bow, was so worried he phoned around fellow postal workers in the area as soon as he returned to base.
The experience inspired him to think up a system to send alerts out using the handheld devices Royal Mail issues to staff to scan parcels.
He wrote to Royal Mail bosses and to the Metropolitan Police, who put him in touch with the charity Missing People to turn his idea into reality.
The system went live in November and beamed its first alert about a missing child before Christmas.
“If you work in the same area for over 20 years as I have, you get to know people and see their kids grow from being babies,” said Mr Micallef. “As a father myself, I felt upset for the parents when this child went missing.
“I did what I could to tell other people by phone, then I realised that our scanners could be used to get thousands of extra eyes looking out for children.”
The system can send a message to every delivery worker in the country or just one postcode area. New scanners next year will mean photos as well as text messages can be sent to staff.
Labour MP Ann Coffey, who chairs the parliamentary group on Runaway and Missing Children, said: “This is a wonderful example of someone with strong community spirit having a brilliant idea that could save lives.”
Jo Youle, of Missing People, said: “Our partnership with Royal Mail is a truly inspired way to spread an alert quickly and to the very people who are the eyes and ears of their local communities.”
