Three Barrington police patrol cars parked near the Primrose Hill School one day last week put a bit of a scare into some people.

Was it a lockdown? Was there a threat? What was going on there?

The cars gathered on Middle Highway at around 8 am on Thursday, Jan. 10. But their appearance in that area had nothing to do with the school, said Barrington Police Chief John LaCross.

Police received a call for help in locating a teenage boy with some developmental or mental health issues who disappeared from his Barrington home, LaCross said. 

“There was no threat,” he said. 

Patrol officers looked for the boy in the woods behind the school. They soon found him walking toward the Barrington Christian Academy and took him back home without incident.