Source: Missing Brooklyn teen found in Harlem

CROWN HEIGHTS, Brooklyn (WPIX) — A missing 14-year-old girl who disappeared while babysitting her younger brother and sister in Brooklyn last week was found in Harlem on Thursday, according to a law enforcement source who spoke to NewsNation affiliate PIX11 News.

“She was staying in an apartment. Someone called the police,” the source said.

Police officers from the 24th Precinct in Harlem responded and took the teen to a local hospital for a medical evaluation. Detectives from the 77th Precinct in Brooklyn, the area where the teen lives, were going to the hospital to interview her, according to the source. Nexstar’s WPIX is no longer identifying the teen because she is a minor.

City Council Member Crystal Hudson, who represents the central Brooklyn district where the girl lives with her family, tweeted that the teen had been located.

“THANK YOU to everyone who helped spread the word,” Hudson tweeted. “It was through our collective outreach and media coverage that we were able to garner enough attention that she was recognized.”

Hudson ended the tweet with bold-faced capital letters, “THANK YOU NEW YORK.”

The case captured national attention, as the teen’s mother tearfully pleaded for her return while clutching the girl’s favorite doll and sketchbook.

The girl’s mother, Raquel, said she was at work July 27 when her younger children called and said the oldest girl had disappeared from the house. She told WPIX there had been an incident involving her daughter’s computer two days before the girl disappeared.

“When I walked into the room, it was late, and I said, ‘Hand me the computer,'” Raquel recalled when she spoke with WPIX earlier this week.

Detectives initially suspected the teen may have run away, but Hudson cautioned that the circumstances of her disappearance shouldn’t matter.

“We need to be mindful of the fact that she could be in danger,” Hudson told WPIX on Wednesday.