Vault: His Son Went Missing At A Hawks Game

Summary

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The Bert Show: Vault — His Son Went Missing At A Hawks Game

Date: May 25, 2026
Host & Cast: Bert and the Bert Show team

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Episode Overview

This emotional and candid episode centers on host Bert’s real-life scare when his son, Hayden, briefly went missing during an Atlanta Hawks game. The segment dives into the feelings of parental panic, the importance of swift action, and the unexpected ways children can wander off in public venues. The conversation expands with listener calls sharing similar gut-wrenching stories about losing track of children, emphasizing caution, vigilance, and how fast situations can escalate.

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Main Discussion Points & Insights

The Incident at the Hawks Game

• Bert’s Recap (01:23 - 05:25)
  • Bert describes bringing his family to a Hawks game suite for a community event.
  • While his wife Stacey goes to get cash with the kids, Bert stops to chat with a former colleague.
  • Stacey suddenly returns, panicked: “Have you seen Hayden?” (02:58)
  • The group splits up to search; panic sets in as Bert realizes Hayden is missing in a crowded arena.
  • Bert eventually spots Hayden at the team store, happily waving a Hawks banner, unaware of the crisis.

“Nobody looks familiar. And I don't see this kid anywhere.” — Bert (04:16)

• Bert holds back from scolding Hayden: “Don't ever do that again. Never, never, never leave your parents ever, ever again.” (04:39)
• Stacey hugs Hayden first, then firmly warns him, reflecting every parent’s roller coaster of relief and frustration.
• Bert admits it was "the worst feeling I've ever had in my life." (05:34)

Lessons on Child Safety

• The Disney World Story (05:34 - 07:11)

  • Bert shares a chilling account from a friend: at Disney World, security lockdown helped rescue a child who’d already been disguised by her attempted abductor.
  • Key advice: “When you're at Disney World and you lose a child, the whole place goes on lockdown. Nobody can get in, nobody can get out.” (06:25)

• Listener Anecdotes about Security Response (07:26 - 08:39)

  • A co-host recalls finding a lost child at Disney's Hollywood Studios and being impressed by the rapid, thorough security response.
  • Security not only locates children but also thoroughly questions adults involved to ensure legitimacy.

Listener Call-Ins: Real Stories of Lost Kids

• Losing a Child at the Beach (08:41 - 09:52)

  • Lori calls in, sharing a harrowing episode where her five-year-old son wandered for miles down the beach instead of returning to the hotel.
  • “I'm in the hotel parking lot screaming, not letting anybody out of the parking lot. My husband's down the ocean.” — Lori (09:00)

• Drifting in the Water (09:32 - 09:52)

  • Bert recalls another beach incident: “That kid had drifted a mile and a half down the beach.” (09:52)
  • The hosts emphasize how quickly these situations occur, even with attentive parents.

• Reconsidering Kid Leashes (10:14 - 10:26)

  • After these stories, a co-host jokes: “I won't judge leashes anymore...I'd rather you laugh at my kid than find him in the men's bathroom in different clothes.” (10:14)

• Losing a Child in a Store (11:17 - 12:22)

  • Kimmere shares a story of her four-year-old son disappearing inside a Bass Pro Shop. Security locked down the store for ten minutes before finding him climbing a display.
  • “He was up there climbing this little rock mountain, having a great time, and in his own innocent little bubble.” (12:22)

The Emotional Fallout

• Describing Parental Panic (12:33 - 13:04)
  • Bert likens the feeling to a movie scene where everything spins around a stressed character, highlighting disorientation and terror.
  • The team swaps stories about mishaps (like a child separated on an airport tram), ending with humor to cut the tension.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Bert, on realizing Hayden is gone:
  “Nobody looks familiar. And I don't see this kid anywhere.” (04:16)

• Bert, disciplining Hayden:
  “Don't ever do that again. Never, never, never leave your parents ever, ever again.” (04:39)

• Bert, describing parental terror:
  “Worst feeling I've ever had in my life.” (05:34)

• Listener Lori, reflecting on losing her son at the beach:
  “I'm in the hotel parking lot screaming, not letting anybody out of the parking lot. My husband's down the ocean.” (09:00)

• Co-host (on child leashes):
  “I won't judge leashes anymore... I'd rather you laugh at my kid than find him in the men's bathroom in different clothes.” (10:14)

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Key Timestamps

• 01:23: Bert introduces the Hawks game and sets the scene
• 02:58: Panic sets in — Hayden is missing
• 04:16: Bert’s emotional reaction and search for Hayden
• 05:34: Lessons learned, similar high-stakes missing child story at Disney World
• 07:26 - 08:39: Lost child protocol at theme parks, security response
• 08:41 - 09:52: Listener stories: losing children at beaches
• 11:17 - 12:22: Listener stories: losing children in stores
• 12:33: Bert describes the emotional panic and aftermath

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Tone & Style

• The tone is urgent, real, and at times, laced with humor as hosts and listeners recount terrifying moments.
• The segment illustrates both the vulnerability and resilience of parents, with hosts and callers offering empathy, advice, and support.
• The open sharing and light banter make the serious topic accessible while respecting the gravity of the situations discussed.

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Takeaways

• Losing a child—even for a few minutes—is every parent’s nightmare, and it can happen truly "in an instant."
• Immediate action, especially involving security, can change outcomes dramatically in crowded public spaces.
• Vigilance and resourcefulness are paramount, and there's growing respect for any tools (even leashes!) that keep kids close.
• Shared stories validate parental worry—nobody is immune from a split-second scare.

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This candid episode offers both practical lessons and the emotional reassurance that even the most careful parents can experience these heart-stopping moments—and that, with quick action and community, most stories end safely.

Transcript

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[Bert (Host)]

to play social casino void where prohibited. Visit spinquest.com for more details. You're on the Burt Show On Friday night, the Atlanta Hawks gave Burt's Big Adventure two sweets to bring prior Burt's Big Adventure families together and watch the Hawks play. And the families get to connect with each other, which is really becoming such a huge part of Burt's Big Adventure. Now is when we come back, we really keep all the families together and they get to reunite and really help each other through some very difficult times. So the Hawks gave us a couple of suites for these families. We brought Hayden and we brought Hollis and my wife Stacey, and we were all going to go and hang out with the Burt's Big Adventure families, right? So we get inside the stadium and we're walking to the suites and Stacy remembers that she has to get some cash, some money. So she takes the ATM machine, the money card out of my wallet, and she walks one way with the kids. And as that's happening, I, um, I see a former employee of Q100 who is working for another radio station now. So I stop, and I start having conversation with him. Takes about three or four minutes. Stacy and the fam are checking out the money situation. They come back, and she checks in with me, and she says, we are walking right down here to Portal 6, where we're gonna pick up some Hawks gear for the kids, so we'll see you down there, no problem. So they start walking down that way, and I'm in conversation with this guy Ron, and all I know is that Stacy does a U turn quickly, and there's a panicked look on her face, and she's like, have you seen Hayden?

[Co-host or Guest]

Oh, boy.

[Bert (Host)]

And I said, no, Hayden was with you over at the money machine.

[Co-host or Guest]

That'll drain the color from your face.

Wow.

[Bert (Host)]

Immediately, right? So I'm trying to keep it cool, but I figure he must be, you know, he's got. How far could it be? I mean, we're talking about just a couple of seconds here. So I look to my right, and I look down, and there's no Hayden. And then I look to my left, and now I see the panic starting to go over Stacy's face. So I'm starting to get even more panic because everybody in our group is starting to get panicked too. So we go into customer service. He's not there. Stacy runs one way. Our Burt's Big Adventure coordinator, Amy, is with her also. And then I head the other direction looking for him.

[Co-host or Guest]

How much time are we talking about?

[Bert (Host)]

75 minutes is what it felt like. I couldn't even tell you he went into customer service.

[Co-host or Guest]

So that.

[Bert (Host)]

I mean, it could have been three, maybe three minutes. I don't even know when something like that happens. The first time that. That I really have felt like I lost my kid. Like, when you're on the playground and you can't see him even for that split second, you sort of get a little bit panicked about it. But the playground is such a confined area that normally if you just move five feet to your right or five feet to your left, you get a visual of your kid, right? This one man. I mean, there are thousands of people walking in the aisles and walking from portal to portal, and I couldn't see anything.

[Co-host or Guest]

Nobody looks familiar.

[Bert (Host)]

Nobody looks familiar. And I don't see this kid anywhere. So I start walking in the general direction of that gift store that they were talking about. And sure enough, there's Hayden. He's just looking around. He's got this Hawks banner, and he's showing everybody his new Hawks Chick Fil A banner. And he's just, like, showing everybody he's so proud of it. I don't even think he realized his mom wasn't even there.

[Caller or Guest]

Wow.

[Co-host or Guest]

So he didn't even know he was lost when he was lost?

[Bert (Host)]

I'm not even sure. I didn't even ask him, really. And it happens so fast, and your emotions are flooding over you that I don't even really have a very clear picture of what happened next. But I just know that I was saying to myself, don't chew his ass out. Cause Stacey's gonna do that in 30 seconds. So I said to him, I think, don't ever do that again. Never, never, never leave your parents ever, ever again.

[Co-host or Guest]

But did he even know that he did that?

[Bert (Host)]

I think he did. I think I just remember asking him why he left. And he said he was showing everybody his banners. So I took him by the hand and I brought him over to Stacy, and she reacted the way that I thought she would. First you hugged him. Thank God nothing's wrong. And then hands on the arms.

[Co-host or Guest]

And don't you ever. Yeah.

[Bert (Host)]

Hiss.

[Co-host or Guest]

Where? Somebody's almost dialing defects. They're like 404.

[Bert (Host)]

What is she doing?

[Co-host or Guest]

Yeah, let's see. Let's see how far she's gonna take this.

[Bert (Host)]

Worst feeling I've ever had in my life. We were at the FIPS Santa thing on Sunday night. The new Santa's at over at Phipps, and they had a media presentation for it. So I'm there telling some of our friends this, and she relays this story to me. And thank God she told me it after the whole thing. Said she had some friends. They're at Disney World one year. Same type thing happens. They're at Disney World and they lose their child. Well, rather than look around, she goes directly to security. You know, like Stacy and I were looking for ourselves. Probably two minutes before, we would have started to ask, where's security? These people go right to security. And that decision right there saved their child's life. When you're at Disney World and you lose a child, the whole place goes on lockdown. Nobody can get in, nobody can get out.

[Co-host or Guest]

So nobody can take the kids.

[Bert (Host)]

Nobody can take the kids. Right. So she goes right to security. Security puts the APB out, and they start checking everywhere. About 10 minutes later, 10 minutes later, they find the Child, the girl, it's her daughter. In the men's bathroom with a guy that had her in different clothes and her hair cut already.

[Co-host or Guest]

Stop it.

I wanted to walk her out of the park.

[Bert (Host)]

Planning on walking her out of the park.

[Co-host or Guest]

Whoa.

[Bert (Host)]

Wow. Thank God. She told me that story after the Hawks game, you know, when I was in my bb.

[Co-host or Guest]

They took my breath away.

[Bert (Host)]

And she said, you know what? Had she looked for that kid herself for 10 minutes or whatever, would have never found her. Baby would have been gone with the assailant. And they may have never seen her again. But she went right to security.

[Co-host or Guest]

And I always feel bad. Poor Walt Disney World. Having to deal with creeper dudes like that every single day. And making sure and trying their best to make sure that they were that guy arrested.

[Bert (Host)]

Oh, I'm sure. I mean, she didn't know what happened afterwards, but I'm sure.

[Co-host or Guest]

When I was at BBA last year at the MGM park, so it's still called or whatever it's called now, the movie themed one.

Hollywood Studios.

I think it's called Hollywood Studios. There was a kid who was clearly lost. You know, you can just see that look on their face. And they're looking. And so I'm watching the kid and I'm watching and there's no parent or whatever. So I go up to the kid and I'm like, are you. Can you not find who you're looking for? And like, you know, the kid was shut down. Totally shut down. So I said, hey, why don't you walk over with me? And there was a, you know, employee. I don't know if it's security or whatever, but a Disney person 50ft away. So walk over and say, hey, this kid was just hanging out. I don't know his name. He's really clammed up. She said something into her walkie talkie and I kid you not, a dozen out of nowhere security people, everybody, like SWAT team, everybody was down there.

Action plan is in place.

Yeah.

And they were like, like one person who is like down on their knees now.

[Caller or Guest]

Hi.

[Co-host or Guest]

Where did you last see your mom? What is your mom? Do you remember what your mommy's wearing? Who are you here with?

[Bert (Host)]

I'm surprised they didn't start questioning you.

[Co-host or Guest]

No, they did.

Yeah, me too.

They took. They said, could we get your name? Do you have a cell phone with you in case we have any questions? All this stuff, they. They were on it.

Wow.

[Bert (Host)]

Hey, Lori. Good Morning. You're on Q100.

[Caller]

Hey, Bert.

I know how you feel. It's just the scariest thing ever. My child was five years old and we were at the beach and somehow him coming back to the room. We had walkie talkies. My daughter was seven. They were down at the beach. We were watching them from the balcony. And he got turned around and instead of coming up to the hotel, he started walking down the beach. So I go to the elevator to get him, and it's a two story little hotel. He's gone. So I start panicking. And, you know, you're at the beach, you're thinking someone grabbed him. So I'm in the hotel parking lot screaming, not letting anybody out of the parking lot. My husband's down the ocean. I just, you know. You think he frowned? Well, you know what that child did? He was five. He walked down the beach looking for a two story pink building. He was miles. I mean, we had to call the police. They were driving down the street as we were running down the beach, stopping people. Have you seen a little blonde boy? And they're like, yeah, he went that way. But I mean, he was literally almost two miles up the beach.

[Bert (Host)]

Yeah. We were in Isla Palms this summer and the same thing happened where parents lost their kid on the beach and he was in the water and they couldn't find him. So you can imagine everything going through their head. And you can spot the parents that lose their kids. Cause it's in. It's a very unique look. I mean, you're panicked and you're running as fast as you can up and down the beach. That kid had drifted a mile and a half down the beach.

[Caller or Guest]

Whoa.

[Bert (Host)]

He was in the water. He's like 6 years old. Drifted down the beach to the boardwalk.

[Co-host or Guest]

You just gotta be so careful. Cause I'm sure that happens really quickly too.

[Bert (Host)]

Very, very quickly.

[Co-host or Guest]

The parents weren't ignoring him for an hour and a half. You know, it's five minutes, you look this way, you go to get the sandwiches out or whatever, and then it's like gone.

[Bert (Host)]

And the undertow in South Carolina is. Is so strong. Yeah. So swift.

[Co-host or Guest]

I won't judge leashes anymore, I don't think. You know, like, I always. I always laugh at parents on leashes, but, I mean, after hearing some of these stories, I'd rather you laugh at my kid than find him in the men's bathroom in different clothes.

[Bert (Host)]

Hey, Wendy, good Morning. You're on Q100.

[Caller]

Hey, good morning. Just listening to that was. I'm taking my son to the doctor right now. And I told him about when one time when we were at Disney World. We just told the story. We were actually there. My cousin is one of the characters we had gone to visit, and we were there when that little girl was taken. And when they did lockdown, you had to go out only exit, and they were searching you literally hands on, searching everybody person as they walked out. And that's how they found the little girl in the bathroom. They were searching. Security was. But we were there. So when I just had barely got that out of my mouth, and then you start telling that story and we just both freaked out.

[Bert (Host)]

Yeah, I mean, a story like that, it gets spread pretty quickly, you know, Here is Kimmere. Good morning. You're on Q100. Good morning.

[Caller or Guest]

Good morning. When my son, my oldest, was, I believe, four years old, my ex husband was taking him to Bass Pro Shops. And because he had to trade out a shirt that he had gotten, and he went into the dressing room and he went to lift his shirt off to try it on. And by the time between the time he started pulling it up at the time he got it off his head, my son had crawled under the little fitting room door, took off. So he threw his shirt back on, opened the door. My son's nowhere to be found. And I mean, he looked everywhere. He went over, got security, they locked down the building. We searched for 10 minutes in that store. And I mean, there's like five security guys looking everywhere. Nobody could find him. Finally, somebody stumbles up. You know, in Bass Pro Shops, I've got that huge display with the mountain goats and everything. Well, he was up there climbing this little rock mountain, having a great time,

[Bert (Host)]

and in his own innocent little bubble,

[Co-host or Guest]

if you lose your kid, look for the mountain goats.

[Bert (Host)]

No problem.

[Co-host or Guest]

Well, that was just like Hayden just wandering around, showing people his banner. No clue that everybody was panicking.

Can I tell you guys, when I

[Bert (Host)]

was, you know how, like in a movie, you sometimes see, like somebody that's in a really high stress scene and the whole room is spinning around them. They show you that one thing where you're. The panicked person is in the middle, but the whole room is spinning. That's how it felt like to me,

[Co-host or Guest]

man, I told you guys about being at Hartsfield. And the dad jumped on the train, the door closed, and the daughter was behind him, and she thought. He thought. She jumped on with him. Oh, and the train's going, and the dad's on the train moving, doors closed, daughter standing outside, like, panicked.

[Bert (Host)]

How you going to go home, tell moms that? I would just say, you know what?

[Commercial Announcer]

Let's. Let's not immediately.

[Co-host or Guest]

I was in a hurry.

[Bert (Host)]

Listen, it's the vert show.

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