A TikToker's advice for finding a missing child in public has helped other moms locate their kids in seconds
- Jessica Cakmakli posted a TikTok video on how to find a child who is lost in a public place.
- Her advice: Get loud, shout a description of the kid, and get as many people involved in the search.
- Since Cakmakli posted the video, dozens of families have shared that the hack works.
Jessica Cakmakli has heard stories about children getting lost in parking lots, amusement parks, malls, and everywhere in between.
"It happens all the time," the mom of three told Insider. "It takes two seconds for a kid to get distracted and walk away."
Cakmakli posted a TikTok video sharing her advice on what to do if this happens, urging families to shout the child's physical description and get others involved in the search. Cakmakli said she learned about the strategy years ago in an article shared on a Facebook parenting group, and the tip stuck with her.
Since posting the video on her account @jesmartini in November 2020, dozens of mothers have shared how the advice was successful in finding their child, and it's still getting traction.
The mom's advice is to get loud and get others involved
When a child gets lost, often family members start quietly searching or calling out the child's name.
In Cakmakli's video, she stresses that the second a person realizes their child is gone, they should start calling out a verbal description of them.
"You want to look loudly. And what I mean by that is you start shouting their description while you look," she says in the video. "It's going to sound like this, 'I'm looking for a boy, age 5, short brown hair, brown eyes, Caucasian, red Nike T-shirt, black shorts.'"
Cakmakli said that this works for a few reasons. First, it alerts everyone that a child is missing and gets more people involved in the search, which may lead to finding the child faster.
In a worst-case scenario where the child is being kidnapped, yelling and having a group involved starts commotion - something captors are trying to avoid, Cakmakli said.
Cakmakli said she's heard from mothers that a fear of judgment might stop someone from loudly looking, but she says a little judgment is the best outcome.
"That's your best-case scenario: You look stupid and your kid is right there and you just go home," she said. "But if it's the worst-case scenario, you just saved your kid's life."
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Parents say the hack worked for them
At the time of writing, Cakmakli's video has more than half a million views. And many parents have shared that the advice in Cakmakli's TikTok has helped them find their kids.
In January, one mother wrote on Facebook that she used the advice when her 2-year-old son went missing in a Kmart in Australia, according to the New Zealand Herald.
Other parents have posted videos sharing their experiences. TikTok user @kells_classroom_chaos shared her success using the strategy in a TikTok video from January, in which she described searching for her child in a parking lot and calling out his clothing description.
"I was shouting, 'I am looking for a boy in a Donald Duck hat, with a white shirt, and blue shorts,'" the mom says in the video. "We found him within 15 seconds."
Cakmakli said the response to her TikTok video has been overwhelming, and that four mothers have privately messaged her sharing how they used the tip to find their children.
The comments under her video are filled with similar stories.
"I saw this happen in a huge store and it worked! Everyone jumped into action looking for this toddler and found him super fast," one TikTok user wrote.
Another commented: "My 3-year-old brother was lost in Sea World. My mom made sure the entire park knew he was missing. We found him safely with a mascot whale."
Cakmakli said she's glad the advice is reaching a wide audience. "It makes me feel really grateful that so many people got this information," she said. "It legitimately helped them."