With Emotional Plea, City Offers $50K For LA Boy Lost In The Storm

LOS ANGELES, CA - The Los Angeles City Council unanimously approved a $50,000 reward Wednesday for information that helps authorities find a 14-year-old Sylmar boy who went missing in San Fernando during Friday's fierce rainstorm.

Elias Rodriguez was last seen about 1 p.m. Friday in the 1000 block of Arroyo Street, leaving his school, the Cesar Chavez Learning Academy, the Los Angeles Police Department reported.

The boy had borrowed someone's cellphone to call his mother at work on Friday to ask if she could pick him up, but she missed the call, police said.

"I'm asking for every mom and dad and grandparent and aunt and uncle and young parent to just imagine how this would feel, and let us really be on the lookout," Council President Herb Wesson said.

Police said a helicopter search of the Los Angeles River turned up nothing, and noted that the teen has no history of running away.

The boy's distraught parents joined police Tuesday at a news conference to plead for information about their son.

"Come home. We miss him," father Sergio Rodriguez said before choking up.

Pahola Mascorro said friends and family members have conducted their own searches for her son and remain desperate to know where he is.

"We just need him to come home and (to) know he's OK," she said.

He's described as 5-foot-4 and weighing about 100 pounds, with brown hair and eyes, and was last seen wearing a black baseball cap, black sweatpants and a gray sweatshirt.

Anyone with information regarding the boy's whereabouts should call detectives at the LAPD's Mission Station at (818) 838-9800.

City News Service