Eastern Waikato Police are commending the tenacity of family members for the locating of a farm worker who had been missing for four days.
Sergeant Mark Toomey of the Morrinsville Police said the 22-year-old man had been reported missing to Police after he texted his brother on Friday night that he was hitch hiking home from Tauranga.
"He was due back at work in Morrinsville to milk cows on Saturday morning but never showed up. He had gone to Tauranga with a relative on Wednesday to attend a party on Thursday and his family were obviously very concerned when he failed to appear.
"Family members had travelled to Tauranga to search for him and through dogged determination, working through Facebook contacts and tracking people down they were able to identify the unknown friend where the party had been and located the missing man at this person's address."
Mr Toomey said the man had been hitch hiking home with good intent on Friday when he got a ride but things took a turn for the worse when he fell asleep.
"From what we understand he fell asleep in a car and ended up in Whakatane but lost his cell phone.
"Making his way back to Tauranga the man was located by his family who are very relieved he is alright and both they and Police would like to thank the media and the public for the profiling of his being missing."
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