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He explained missing child cases are first handled by frontline officers, then passed to investigators who determine if there is concern for the child’s well-being. Once the investigative team concludes the child may be in danger, a York Regional Police officer with the rank of inspector or above reviews the case before passing the findings to Ontario Provincial Police.

If the OPP agrees the child may be in danger, only then is an Amber Alert issued.

In this case, the Amber Alert was issued across the province about an hour after the incident was reported by the school.

“The Amber Alert led to a tip that directly resulted in us locating the girl and her father,” Pattenden said, adding it worked exactly as it’s intended to.

He said police received a call just before 6 p.m. from the owner of a key store on Fairburn Ave., near Rodick Rd. and Hwy. 7, who recognized the girl and her father from the Amber Alert when they entered the shop.

Officers responded, located the little girl “in good health,” took her dad into custody, and later released him.

“The father was not charged,” Pattenden said. “And the mother won’t be charged either.”

He was unable to elaborate.

But Solomon, who is no longer with his daughter’s mother, claims he routinely picks her up from school and Tuesday was no different.

“There is no legal documents stating that I should not be in contact with her,” he wrote on Facebook. “I was able to properly sign my daughter out of school, as I have in the past and wasn’t informed to not do so in the future.”

After many interviews, Solomon said police concluded he had not abducted his daughter.

“I understand that the police were fulfilling their duties by filing the Amber Alert with the information they were given and they couldn’t take a chance. Their system does work. I am not blaming the police for issuing the alert, they did what they had to with the misinformation they had,” he wrote.

cdoucette@postmedia.com

On Twitter: @SunDoucette