An 11-year-old Brooklyn boy who disappeared five days ago was found Monday riding the subway in Manhattan, and he said that's where he had been for most of the time he was missing.
"It was a very big world," Kareem Granton told reporters shortly after reuniting with his family. "I didn't think I would probably make it."
Granton, who had last been seen walking out of a friend's house last Wednesday after playing video games, said he "just had a tantrum in the moment, a type of anger problem."
"So I just wanted to express it in a different way," he said.
He said he spent nights on the train and ate at Chuck E. Cheese, and was not aware anyone other than his mother would have been looking for him. A community advocate who knows the family said he had about $10 on him when he was found Monday.
Granton had a history of running away, but never for this long, his family said.
Granton was found in the Union Square subway station shortly after morning rush hour when a rider notified police that she had seen a boy who fit the description of a missing child.
Police said a transit officer and his police dog, Dakota, boarded the train and approached Granton. Police said one of the reasons the boy stayed calm was because he was able to pet the German shepherd.
The officer, Dennis Grimm, said Granton "looked tired and hungry" when police found him.
Local
The friend who last saw him, Eric Steward, said he and Granton went to his apartment in their building even though Granton was supposed to go straight home from school. At some point, Granton said it was time for him to go and asked Steward to see if anyone who knew his mother was in the hallway.
“He was like, ‘Well it’s time for me to go, can you check the hallway and make sure there’s nobody that knows me that can tell my mom that I'm here?’” said Steward, 13. “So I did, and he went down the staircase.”
