When Steve Fines heard that six-year-old Ethan Haus was missing, he knew he had no choice but to help.
"You know, I'm a parent too," he said. "These parents had a six-year-old missing, I had a tool that could be really helpful. There was just no way I couldn't go."
Fines owns his own company, Fines Imaging, but mainly does commerical work. This was the first time he's ever been involved in such an undertaking.
"You just hear so many stories that don't end well, but yeah I was hopeful, but I was worried too."
When he offered his services at the command center, they gave him a particular area to search.
"The drone flights are a lot like a lawn mover going back and forth in lines to know that you've covered a whole area," he said. Then after searching for about five hours, using thermal imaging technology, he spotted the orange glow of an image on his monitor about 1:50 a.m.
"When I found the boy on the thermal camera, he was about a quarter of a mile from where I was standing," he said. He didn't go to the boy, but instead called the command center, who had a ground crew ready to rescue Ethan.
The Sherburne County Sheriff's Office said more than 600 volunteers, numerous law enforcement agencies all participated in the search.
"The only reason I knew where to look was because of dozens of law enforcement agencies that were there. It was because of the 600 volunteers on the ground. It was because somebody found a footprint, we knew which direction he went. I got to be the one with a camera that found him but in my mind, everybody found him," Fines said.
