It was a missing person case that quickly ended in relief for police and the family of Darshan Sigel.
The 13-year-old turned up safe and well at his school in the Blue Mountains town of Katoomba on Wednesday morning - about 11 hours and almost 250km from where his mother last saw him at Heatherbrae the night before.
Police believe the teenager, who is on the Autism spectrum, had little more than a few coins and his mother's car keys in his pocket as he hitch-hiked from the Hunter to Sydney's upper north shore.
He arrived at Pymble about midnight and caught a train to Central Station before making a connection onto another train, which took him into the mountains.
From there, he walked to his school and waited for staff and students to arrive for the day.
Police are asking for the driver who picked up Darshan to contact them so they can "fill in the blanks" - they say the driver is not in trouble.
"[Darshan] was quite a determined and resourceful young boy," Port Stephens-Hunter police commander Superintendent Chad Gillies said on Wednesday morning.
"As you can appreciate, [Darshan's] mum was very relieved."
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Police were called to Heatherbrae on Tuesday night after the teenager left his mum's car and did not return.
The pair were travelling home to the Blue Mountains from the north coast when the boy walked away from the vehicle about 9.15pm.
They had stopped at the carpark on the corner of Masonite Road and the Pacific Highway - near Hungry Jacks and Heatherbrae's Pies - for a break.
Police and the State Emergency Service began a thorough search of the area and launched an appeal for help to find Darshan early on Wednesday, shortly before he was discovered at his school.
Superintendent Gillies said police believed Darshan vanished after a disagreement with his mum about stopping - he was keen to get home as soon as possible for school on Wednesday, his first day back in some time.
"Whenever anyone of that age and someone like Darshan who is on the spectrum is missing at that time of night, taking into consideration weather conditions, we obviously don't want to miss a beat," he said.
"When you've got someone that age at risk you want to make sure they're found as soon as possible."
