People go missing every day in our lives, which is why you should be alerted about how to act on this situation in advance, and it definitely does not help to rely on the information provided on TV shows. On the contrary, what you have been told on your TV is either a piece of false information or some sort of disinformation.

In this article, we will tell you about the most important steps that you should take when finding out that someone has gone missing.

Myths Versus Reality

As we already said, do not trust your TV when it comes to reporting missing people. Here are some things that you should forget about from watching TV shows:

• You should not wait three days in order to report a missing person. In real life, you should report that a person is missing the minute you find out about it.
• Children are not the only ones getting reported to the police. It does not matter what age a missing person has; you can report this situation to your local police officer anyways.
• Give as much information as you can. In addition, do not forget to bring in the picture of a missing person and tell all the details about him or her, including weight, height, age, hair color, eye color, what they were wearing the last time they were seen, and tattoos or unusual birthmarks and so on. And do not leave a police station without providing the officers with your contact information.

It might also be important to know the main reasons why people go missing so that you would not beat yourself up with some horrible thoughts. Here are the three of the most common reasons:

• Disoriented people. These people are usually the ones who get lost by themselves: they might take a wrong turn during their hike or go on the wrong road while driving in the car.
• Voluntarily missing people. Yes, people might want to escape their current lifestyle by themselves, and in this case, you will not find out where they are. Even if the police find them, they cannot tell you where this person is without his or her consent. All you will be able to know is that they are safe.
• People that are missing because of a third party. Yes, it might happen that someone you know was kidnapped by another person, but it is only the third reason on our list, so do not get overwhelmed too fast and think about other reasons this person might have gone missing.