An Amber Alert was issued yesterday for a  7-year-old girl and an 8-year-old boy, along with two adults who may be traveling to the states in a blue Chevrolet Equinox. Read more HERE.

While police across the province are on the lookout for 50-year-old Benjamin Martin Moore, and 45-year-old Leah Potts, who is the mother of the children, Luna and Hunter, what does a citizen do if they happen to see them here in Weyburn?

"Usually when an Amber Alert comes up, there is some sort of vehicle involved sometimes, so if you happen to have that vehicle in sight, we would ask for the information on it, descriptors of the individuals that are in that vehicle, direction of travel," said Chief Jamie Blunden with the Weyburn Police Service. 

"We don't want you to pursue," he noted. "We certainly don't want you to follow these individuals. But what we'd like you to do is phone 9-1-1, get that information out to us, and if you could, in a safe manner, sort of keep a watchful eye on where they're going, and what they're doing, by all means, we'll certainly encourage you to do that as long as you are safe and we can get our police down there." 

"The reality is, we don't want you to get involved. We don't want you to go talk to them. We don't want you to go try and do anything with respect to apprehending the child or the person that's there. No other involvement [is required], other than reporting what you see. Then the person on the other line that you're calling on 9-1-1, we'll give you direction in regards to what they ask you to do."

"I mean, if you're in a position where you're in your car, and you're watching this person in a park somewhere, by all means, we're going to ask you to keep an eye on that person and the missing person that we're looking for and obviously we would walk you through that. But if the person was in the vehicle going through red lights, we would certainly not want you to pursue that person and try and follow them."

Blunden said anyone with any information on the whereabouts of these individuals should simply call 9-1-1.

As for how the Weyburn Police Service handles the Amber Alert internally, they try to get more particular information if needed from the issuing agency, which in this case is the Shaunavon RCMP.

"So ultimately, there are four things for an Amber Alert to be able to go out, so we would take it very seriously when it does come out, and those criteria have been established by the committee, and the police have to confirm that the abduction has taken place and the victim has to be a child, or a person that is proven to physically or mentally have a disability, and then on top of that, there's got to be a reason to believe that the victim is in danger or serious physical injury." 

He added they also need the vehicle or person description and maybe where they may be traveling to or from, and then are able to keep their eyes out for the individuals. 

"Once that Amber Alert comes out, we make sure that every person that's working in the police service is well aware of that Amber Alert, and it's discussed, and sent out to via e-mail, plus to the cars that are out there, and voiced on the radio about that information sharing highway."

Blunden said the entire point is to get as much awareness out there as possible as quickly as possible, to hopefully find the children.

The Amber Alert system originated in 1996, when 9-year-old Amber Hagerman in Arlington, Texas was kidnapped and brutally murdered. 

"That's why it's called the Amber Alert system, not because it's yellow, but it's because of the fact that we had the initial victim back in 1996. Her first name was Amber, so that's what it was named after."