A mum who lost sight of her daughter at a play centre used a TikTok hack to track down the three-year-old.
Krista Piper started to panic when she did not know where the youngster had gone. But she used the 'looking loudly' method she had seen on the social media app and found her.
The wedding photographer said she had taken her children to the large play place, which is around the size of a "giant science museum" and has "lots of little nooks and crannies", and that her daughter Lily was going back and forth between the different sets.
While talking with another mum, she suddenly lost sight of Lily, and after looking around a bit to no avail, she began to "panic". As reported by our sister title, The Mirror, she said: "I lost my 3 year old today in a play place and thank god for tiktok.
"I’m so happy i saw that tiktok of what to do when your kid goes missing. I found her fast by raising my voice and saying a description of what she was wearing.
"Should have added her age or hair color but the description of little girl with pink minnie mouse shirt got the job done finding her. #parents #parentsoftiktok #playplace "
At first, Krista started yelling Lily's name, but then a "lightbulb went off" and she remembered a TikTok she'd seen about a mother who'd lost her child while at a supermarket.
Rather than yell out her son's name, the mum in question had shouted out a description of the clothes he'd been wearing that day, and was able to find him "way faster".
Taking to TikTok, where she goes by the username @krista.piper, Krista recalled: "So that is what I did. I stopped calling out her name, and I started yelling, 'little girl, pink shirt, pink Minnie Mouse shirt!'.
"I'm sure people thought that I was a little crazy, she was probably only missing for like a minute, to maybe a minute and a half, but for me it felt like eternity."
After Krista started yelling the description, she began to hear other mums repeating the same thing, and thankfully another mum spotted her, all thanks to Krista's quick thinking.
She added: "If you ever lose your child, or dog or anything, yell out their description, raise your voice. You know, I probably looked like a crazy person, but it got the job done."
Fellow parents praised Krista for spreading the word, and agreed that this was a far better method than simply shouting out a child's name.
One person commented: "Yes! Yelling their name doesn't help because no one knows what Sally looks like, but they can pick out a three-year-old in a pink shirt and blue jeans."
Another wrote: "This is such incredible advice and any parent's worst nightmare. So thankful for mums pulling together to help find her. Good job mamma!"
A third applauded: "This is wonderful - thank you! I try to dress kids in bright clothes when we go to big places like that just for my own eyes but it’s a great idea."
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