Girl, Father Found Safe

TACOMA - A father and daughter have been found safe in Tacoma after a rather unusual Amber Alert was issued for their disappearance.

Pierce County Sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer says the family was at the Madigan Army Hospital on Fort Lewis about 3 p.m. Tuesday to pick up medication for the father's brain tumor.

But when the mother went inside the hospital to get the prescriptions, the father climbed into the driver's seat and drove away, with their 18-month-old daughter still in the back seat.

The man's tumor has caused him to suffer from dementia, and Troyer said the man may not have realized what he was doing, or that his daughter was in the backseat.

Troyer stressed it was not a kidnapping situation, but that the Amber Alert was requested out of concern for the child's safety due to her father's condition.

According to the mother, police called her just before 6 p.m. to tell her that the car was found with her husband and daughter safe in Tacoma. Police were coming to pick up the mother and reunite her with her family.