Reporters sometimes face a dilemma: Witnessing events in their communities, they are tasked to report what they see, for their viewers and readers, without crossing any lines of involvement. But sometimes, on a human level, that is just not possible.

On Friday, in Tampa, Fla., local TV reporter Cameron Polom became a part of the story he was covering — the disappearance of 10-year-old Paul Ezekiel Fagan. He had been last seen the afternoon before, playing in his grandmother's yard. Paul's grandmother, Hazel Epps, who has custody of the boy and with whom he lives, called the authorities at 8 p.m. after unsuccessfully searching for him on her own. Officers scoured the neighborhood late into the rainy night and early morning looking for the boy.

Friday morning, after a local press conference on Paul's disappearance, Polom, a 30-year-old reporter for ABC News affiliate WFTS, was walking down the street when he saw a young boy come out from behind overgrown brush in the yard of nearby home. Polom walked up to the boy and asked his name. "I thought to myself, 'Oh, this couldn't be the boy, no way,' and I walked over and said, 'Hey bud, what's your name?' He mumbled 'Paul,' and then I asked if I could pick him up over the fence, and he gave me a huge hug before we walked over to the officers parked in front of his house," Polom said. The sheriff's deputies immediately reunited Paul with his grandmother. Hours later, the boy was also reunited with his father. "It's like a wonderful joy, like your son first being born," Paul's father told WFTS. "When his dad came later on, he literally leaped into his arms," Polom said. The Hillsborough Country Sheriff's office is investigating the incident. It is still not completely clear where he was for 14 hours overnight. But Paul showed Polom and his crew where he had slept in the thick brush behind a shed in the backyard of the nearby home. The reason given by the 10-year-old? "He told me he simply needed space from his little brother," said Polom.

It's a happy ending for the type of story to which reporters often do not see any resolution — and hopefully one that inspires Cameron Polom to keep walking down the street for stories in his community.

