News Chopper Finds 'Missing' Brooklyn Boy Playing Hooky in Surprise Location After He Vanishes on Way to School

A news helicopter covering the story of a New York boy who was reported missing found him on his rooftop skipping school.

When a 9-year-old Brooklyn boy recently left for school but never made it to his destination, his parents called 911 to report him missing.

The police alert, which described the child as wearing an orange tie, spurred a CBS New York news chopper to the Sheepshead Bay apartment complex where the family lives.

Journalist Dan Rice was aboard the helicopter when he spotted someone on the roof of the building who "fit the description of the missing child."

"As my pilot Eric Ross and I were circling around the building, we came across a person sitting in a chair over here on the rooftop. We zoomed in with the camera — it appeared to be the child that fit the description of the missing child ... I looked down at my notes. I see what the assignment desk had sent me, and I see what the child was wearing. I look back at the child, and that child was wearing everything that's in the description," Rice said.

CBS News called the New York City Police Department to report the child they found. Officers soon arrived on the roof and found the boy playing hooky.

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"He just packs up his computer and his book bag and goes off with the police officers. They look back at our helicopter, gave us a big thumbs up and took the child down to his parents," Rice said.

TMX contributed to this report.