At just six years old, Joey Kilpatrick is Australia's unofficial hide-and-seek champion after he hid in a bedroom cupboard for eight hours while playing his favorite game,causing a big rescue operation. The determined little boy's disappearing act led to a careful search, including nice police officers, five State Emergency Service volunteers, tracker dogs and almost all of the people of the town of Goombungee. His mother, Chris, says she called the police when Joey disappeared one afternoon after telling his older brother, Lachlan, 14, that he was off to play hide-and-seek. "I called the two boys for dinner," Chris says. "After about 20 minutes I started to worry, I was shouting to Joey, 'OK, we can't find you, time to come out!'" But there was no sign of her little boy. Within minutes of Chris calling the police, the policemen started one of the biggest ground searches in the town's history. "I was really frightened. I rang my husband, Kris, who works out of town, and he immediately hit the road, calling me every 10 minutes." Chris recalls."They searched the house from top to bottom; everyone was out looking for him. When a neighbor asked if I'd checked the water tank, that's when reality hit. I was afraid." After hours of searching the town, confused police decided to search the house one more time. "I just sat there waiting," Chris says, "Then a strange feeling came over me, and I rushed into the bedroom and put my hand on a pile of blankets in the cupboard. As I pulled then out,there he was---asleep and completely not realizing what was going on! I've never held him in my arms so hard." Senior officer, Chris Brameld,from Goombungee police,says he is glad that Joey's game had a happy ending: "When we realized he was safe, we agreed that it didn't get much better than that!" And young Joey promises that next time he won't be so intent  on finding the best hiding place. "I want to say sorry to the policemen and to Mummy for scaring them," he says, "I promise next time I'll hide where they can find me and I won't fall asleep!" Why did the boy hide in a bedroom cupboard?
He thought it was a good place to sleep He wanted to start a big rescue operation He didn't think he could be easily found there He is Australia's unofficial hide-and-seek champion.