Posting this on behalf of a friend who need help quick and thought this might be the place.

Yesterday morning my 15 year son who has Autism went missing in the Essex area, please go to my facebook page jason Mrburns which I have open to public view for photos of him. The police have been out all night with helicopters and search dogs trying to find him. The press are now being given details and hope anyone in Essex area will see this soon.

Apart from my obvious appeal of any sitings help the reason I need help is there anyone that is a highly technical on mobile phones. The police are struggling somehow my son has managed to piggy back his phone it looks like to a US network which means they cannot ping the phone to get a area where he could be. The police admit they never seen anyone do this before and have been working on this for over 14hrs now without any joy.

Please contact me if you are someone who understands what he has done so the police can ping his phone. As we now reached the 24hr period I obviously been told these searches get more and more difficult and of course time is not on there side.

The helicopters are out with search dogs and Essex police have escalated this to a full scale incidait so I know they are trying so hard to find him but if we could break this piggy back thing Jordan chances of being found would increase massive.

Thank you for listening.

Im sorry to hear about your friends son, hopefully he will be found soon. I'm not sure what you mean by 'piggy back'. There is no way he is connected to a US mobile network.

The only thing I could possibly think they mean is that he is using a VPN with an end point in America? I would think they would still be able to locate that phone though.

Here is a pic and an update from heart.co.uk

http://www.heart.co.uk/essex/news/lo...issing-jordan/

I too am confused by the 'piggy back' statement. If the phone is switched on then the network will be able to assist the police with rough location information. If it's switched off then there's nothing they could deduce other than where it was when it was last on. In either case, the networks will only give this information to the police.

This came up on my facebook timeline this morning, shared in Cheltenham and Liverpool now.

Thinking of you all x

shared your facebook appeal, i hope you find him soon.

As mentioned above, there is no way he can show up as his phone corresponding with a US mast unless he is in the US. Which, of course, raises another possibility.....

This.

Though the VPN idea is good too, as "ping" is an ICMP thing, nothing to do with mobile networks.

I wonder if any of the US air bases have US mobile network masts on site to serve the base personnel?

That's about the only way short of being in the US that I can think a UK mobile could actually attach to a US network.

The other possibility is his phone is not in the UK, just because you know where the phone is, doesn't mean the owner is with it.

Passed all the replies above on, thanks very much for responding.

Could it be a DNS thing? Would that make the phone look like its in the USA?

I've just changed my DNS on my Apple TV to an american one so I can view Netflix US. (My Apple TV now thinks I'm in America, I think)

Is there any possibility he watches US Netflix on his phone as I know it's possible to do this on iPhones as well? I don't know if this would create the pinging from the US?

When the phone is pinged, is the ping static or does it vary & have different locations?

^^ No NG, they're trying to locate his phone using cell towers, not the internet

I know got onto your site ty for getting this posted on my behalf.

I think you hit on something here my Son is a sea cadet he completed a recent comms course and as mentioned he is Autistic. The US base makes logical sense to me.

The police say although they can see numbers going in and out to the mobile when they go to ping it thats when it comes back as there words a piggy backed network. They admit they never have had this happen before. When you call the number it clearly comes back with different ring tone and then standard US voice mail box.

If it was via a US base why would this stop them ping it for loacation?

^^ this is strange your called Jason, there's another poster on the discussion boards posting on behalf of a friend called Jason who's son has also gone missing but different areas, are you 2 them same?

Anyway are you sure it's American and not French. I remember a Watchdog article many years ago about people on the South Coast, Dover way complaining that they could only pick up French Telephone Towers not Uk ones.

Ahh ok, thank you for that (I did think that you would likely know)

I originally posted the thread for Jason as he did not have a DS account. I posted it in the 'mobile phones' section and then asked DS to move it to a more appropriate section which they have but it seems the same thread is still in the MP section.

there's already a post for this, ask the mods to merge

Hi I posted the newspaper article on the general discussion thread. It is the same person we are talking about. When I posted Jason wasn't a member on Digital Spy. We know each other through poker although we are both in different areas. Hope that helps.

Ive heard from his father that Jordan has been found safe and well in Newcastle.

Good news x

That's good to hear. I'm sure his family and friends are very relieved to have him back safe and sound.

So now he has been found.... was it established what the score was with his phone/network?

It could have roamed on to a US network if he was near a US military base and if the police had pinged it at that point, it would have appeared to have been in the states I suppose.

Very pleased he's been found safe and well - great news

Not sure exactly what happened just that he was found last night safe and well. Thanks to everyone who responded to this thread, it has very much been appreciated.