Chapel Hill, N.C. — A resident found a 2-year-old boy safe and sound about three hours after he was reported missing from his home in southern Orange County Tuesday night, ending an air and ground search happily.

Zandar McGhee, 2,  is autistic and went missing at about 7 p.m. Tuesday from Oak Crest Drive, southwest of Chapel Hill near the Chatham County line. He reportedly had been playing near a pond.

A resident found the boy just before 10:30 p.m. on Price Creek Road, west of his home and separated from it by thick woods. He was not harmed and was reunited with his mother.

Orange and Chatham county deputies and firefighters and the state Highway Patrol were searching for the boy when he turned up. A K-9 unit, a helicopter equipped with heat-detecting equipment, John Deere “Gator” off-road vehicles and night-vision equipment were called in for the search.

McGhee's parents said they each thought the other had Zandar until they found out neither did.

Area residents have called authorities several times about missing children since a 6-year-old boy in Durham slipped away from his father at a relative's house on March 16 and drowned in a half-filled swimming pool. Usually, the children have been found within minutes.