Boy found after getting off at wrong bus stop

BOSTON (WHDH) -- A 7-year-old boy went missing for hours after getting off at the wrong bus stop Monday.

The boy’s mother said she waited for two terrifying hours before she learned from a stranger that he was okay. The mother's nightmare came to an end with a note slipped under her door that read, “Dear Richard’s mom…I found Richard.”

“I’m just scared just thinking about it I still get shook up,” said Kyona Cherry.

Richard Fairbairn was home safe Monday night, but his mom Kyona Cherry says she imagined the worst for the two hours her 7-year-old son was missing after school.

When Richard’s school bus pulled up to his Dorchester stop Monday afternoon the first grader wasn't on it. His mom called Martin Luther King Elementary school, but she says no one could tell her where he was.

“I called. The teacher said, ‘We did put him on a bus. I’m not sure which bus I put him on,’” said Cherry.

A spokesperson for Boston Public Schools says every bus that left Martin Luther King Elementary was stopped and immediately and checked -- but the 7- year-old was finally found on a street corner by a stranger.

“He was alone. He was looking lost,” said the woman who found Richard.

Richard apparently got off at a stop that looked familiar. The woman who found him was relieved the boy knew his address, so they left a note at home and waited for his mom to call.

Kyona Cherry says she's relieved by the kindness of a perfect stranger. Now she's waiting for answers from Richard’s school.

“I don't know what I want from them but I know I can’t let him go back right now,” said Cherry.

It’s unclear if the boy was on the wrong bus or if he got off at the wrong stop. The school district says it's investigating and that something like this never should have happened.