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Speaker 1: This is the Fitty and Whipper with Kate Richie podcast.

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Speaker 2: We've spoken about running away from home on this show before.

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Speaker 3: I think every kid goes through it. You just are over,

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Speaker 3: you a rebellious stage in your life. You're off mum

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Speaker 3: and dad. They won't drop you off at footy training

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Speaker 3: early enough and then they forget to pick you up.

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Speaker 3: And you know what, Dad, he's just a loser. So

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Speaker 3: it's time for me to leave. Guys, I'm going to

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Speaker 3: take a few things out of the fridge. I've got

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Speaker 3: my backpack and I'll see you in a few weeks.

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Speaker 4: Have a good one. I'll take the Tim Tams and

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Speaker 4: get out of here.

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Speaker 3: What I want to know is thirteen twenty four to ten?

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Speaker 3: How far did they get running away? This is an

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Speaker 3: unbelievable story of a young bloke called bent. Ben chrystellis right.

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Speaker 3: He's fifteen years of age.

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Speaker 2: Now.

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Speaker 3: This this was in the news at the start of

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Speaker 3: this month, so July, the first week of July. This

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Speaker 3: came out okay, but it said Ben chrystellis missing. Fifteen

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Speaker 3: year old boy found safe and well after going missing

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Speaker 3: from Scarborough. He's over in wa He's gone missing and

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Speaker 3: the article says a fifteen year old boy has been

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Speaker 3: found safe and well. Mother Olivia Hunter took to social

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Speaker 3: media to appeal for the public's help to find her

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Speaker 3: teenage son after Ben said he had not been heard

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Speaker 3: or seen from from.

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Speaker 2: Last Thursday last week. So they found him, which is

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Speaker 2: so scary.

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Speaker 4: I'm lucky he's safe.

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Speaker 3: The thing is that Ben's run away again and a video, Yeah,

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Speaker 3: a video. I'm about to show you this on Instagram.

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Speaker 3: Ben's fifteen years of age. Ben is over with a

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Speaker 3: few mates in Bali at the moment party.

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Speaker 2: How old is he?

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Speaker 4: Fifteen?

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Speaker 2: He's fifteen?

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Speaker 4: Oh Ben, let's have a look at Ben.

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Speaker 3: So I just so that's the story there, and that's

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Speaker 3: been in Bali at a nightclub in Barley.

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Speaker 4: With a girl and giving the camera a one fingered salute.

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Speaker 3: Well, I don't know, I don't know if he's he's

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Speaker 3: with a few mates though there's a few people around,

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Speaker 3: and they're at a nightclub.

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Speaker 4: How did he get a fifteen year old buy a

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Speaker 4: ticket to go somewhere? So, I don't know, can you

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Speaker 4: do that? I mean, he hasn't really run away, He's

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Speaker 4: just gone on a holiday without telling anyone.

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Speaker 2: Well, that's running away. He looks like you're lot old?

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Speaker 3: Is he accompanied minor as a fifteen year old?

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Speaker 2: Or can you sneak your way on and say that

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Speaker 2: you're eight?

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Speaker 4: Am Tommy. You've done a lot of sneaking onto aeroplanes?

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Speaker 4: Can you do that at the age of fifteen? Yeah?

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Speaker 4: Just quite a chicken and go see a lad of

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Speaker 4: guys by the way. I'll tell them when I get there.

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Speaker 2: Yes, So passages twelve or above may travel alone, okay,

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Speaker 2: but I presume that.

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Speaker 4: Well, not many people are running away to Bali, are they?

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Speaker 4: Not many people are leaving Scarborough and saying to their mum,

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Speaker 4: We're just going to grab some milk because I think

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Speaker 4: we're out of it. But surely the airport, where's.

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Speaker 2: The cash from? If it's someone's on the plane. Isn't

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Speaker 2: there a hosty saying.

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Speaker 4: Are you okay?

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Speaker 2: Is where?

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Speaker 4: Who are you traveling with?

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Speaker 2: Who's picking you up from the airport? What's actually unfolding here?

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Speaker 4: I'm just having to cur to mate, get out of

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Speaker 4: my face.

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Speaker 3: Well, he's got his t and mxes on. He's got

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Speaker 3: a bum bag as we're in an order cat. He's

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Speaker 3: a bit of an eshae, but he's got over to

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Speaker 3: BALI that is an unbelievable effort. And thirteen twenty fourteen,

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Speaker 3: how far did you get when you did run away?

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Speaker 2: Like, how far did you go? Should you get into state?

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Speaker 2: I mean overseas?

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Speaker 4: Is my god, it's a really good effort.

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Speaker 3: Well Number one, ring your mother just say, look, Mum,

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Speaker 3: give you the heads up.

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Speaker 2: I'm okay, I'm having a great time.

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Speaker 3: I'm in kuder. I'm just I'm here with the lads.

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Speaker 3: I'll be home soon. But Mum would be freak here.

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Speaker 4: I've just got a new tap, got my nose pierced.

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Speaker 4: Chantell's in RaSE hill, Shaddy, your son ran away?

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Speaker 1: And yeah, So he was teen at the time, and

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Speaker 1: I didn't notice because I have, you know, six children,

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Speaker 1: and I was busy. I was cleaning everything like that,

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Speaker 1: and I was like really busy. And then I was like, hey,

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Speaker 1: it's quiet.

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Speaker 5: Where is he?

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Speaker 1: And then he'd he'd taken this little bike because he's

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Speaker 1: ten years old, to the park. And then I was like, okay,

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Speaker 1: obviously he's gone to his friends or gone to chill out.

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Speaker 1: And then I was like, okay, nine o'clock, my husband's

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Speaker 1: coming home and he's like where is he?

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Speaker 5: And I was like, I don't know, Oh.

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Speaker 4: My god, gosh.

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Speaker 3: Then you start freaking and shan't tell you you ring friends'

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Speaker 3: houses out fi did he get?

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Speaker 1: We did? We didn't know anyone, so we were walking

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Speaker 1: around the streets and everything, and then he and then

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Speaker 1: he was gone for twenty four hours. Apparently he had

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Speaker 1: fallen asleep at the park and then we and then

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Speaker 1: like even to this day, I'm like, so, are you

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Speaker 1: going to run away again?

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Speaker 4: I'm glad you're laughing.

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Speaker 3: Run away again?

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Speaker 2: Laughing pretty chill about it.

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Speaker 4: Why did he run away? Did he have any excuse

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Speaker 4: or reason?

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Speaker 1: No, because I have a phone, and like back then

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Speaker 1: he would like try and steal my phone to watch

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Speaker 1: his little shows and everything. And I was like, come on,

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Speaker 1: you know, I've only got one phone and you've got

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Speaker 1: to share it between them. And then I was like,

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Speaker 1: you've got to do some dishes, or you've got to

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Speaker 1: do your room, because his room.

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Speaker 3: Was like, yeah, what you've run away.

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Speaker 2: I mean, that is a great survival story, let's be honest.

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Speaker 2: But it could have ended badly.

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Speaker 1: The hardest thing is he's got he's got autism. He's

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Speaker 1: such an amazing boy. Now, like he went and got

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Speaker 1: his first job by himself. He's been there a year,

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Speaker 1: you know, did it on his own. He's just got

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Speaker 1: his loners. You know, fully give him credit. But he goes, oh,

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Speaker 1: you're mom, you don't care about us, And I said,

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Speaker 1: there's so many of you guys.

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Speaker 2: Does fair enough? It's a story, Samantha and Riverston? Is

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Speaker 2: this you? Sam?

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Speaker 5: It was I was fifteen and a missing person?

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Speaker 4: Where did you get on? What happened?

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Speaker 5: My dad was a bit raff and said if I

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Speaker 5: didn't like his rules, to leave, So I did?

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Speaker 4: Okay, how long did you go for?

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Speaker 2: Sam?

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Speaker 5: Just over a year?

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Speaker 4: Oh, so did you tell them you were leaving? Sam?

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Speaker 1: No?

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Speaker 4: I can? And how soon? I mean it needs to

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Speaker 4: be twenty four hours before you file a missing person,

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Speaker 4: isn't it?

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Speaker 5: I think? So? Yeah, this is back in the nineties, right, Yeah,

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Speaker 5: the rules were back then.

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Speaker 2: So did you have friends, Sam? Going? You know your

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Speaker 2: mum and dad have filed.

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Speaker 3: A missing missing person's report they're looking for you.

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Speaker 5: No. Because I ended up in a small town called

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Speaker 5: dun Durban, which is out near Dorigo. So I had

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Speaker 5: no TV or anything like that. So I didn't even

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Speaker 5: know crazy and I found out I came back into Sydney,

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Speaker 5: and I've seen a newspaper sitting on a service station

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Speaker 5: counter and it said, have you seen Samantha?

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Speaker 4: You're kidding me? Oh, so should probably check in with someone, Sam.

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Speaker 3: So, did you know when I was sixteenth you got

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Speaker 3: a job and earned money yourself and survived yourself.

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Speaker 5: No, I didn't get a job. The town that I

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Speaker 5: ended up in all the little village, but I did.

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Speaker 5: They knew who I was and what was going on.

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Speaker 5: So I was actually supported by a really small village.

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Speaker 5: They protected me and kept me okay until I was

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Speaker 5: sixteen in a liddle age.

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Speaker 4: So, Sam, obviously you knew that there was the police

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Speaker 4: and everybody concerned. Where there's theories out there of what

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Speaker 4: had happened to you, like.

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Speaker 5: There was quite a few.

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Speaker 4: And did you feel like did you feel the need

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Speaker 4: to alert authorities to say, hey, just a rough home?

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Speaker 4: So I decided to take off in instead of stopping

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Speaker 4: an entire community to look for you.

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Speaker 5: Well, it was funny because when I say village, it

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Speaker 5: was also like a small group of police officers that

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Speaker 5: knew who I was as well. Right, I think it

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Speaker 5: was like the day after my sixteenth birthday, they knocked

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Speaker 5: on my door with a bunch of flowers and a

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Speaker 5: box of chocolates and said happy birthday. And when I

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Speaker 5: said to them, you knew who I was and what

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Speaker 5: I'd done, and they said there was no point taking

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Speaker 5: me back home because they knew they just have to

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Speaker 5: come and find me again.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 4: Cool.

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Speaker 2: Do you have kids of your own?

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Speaker 1: Now?

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Speaker 6: I do.

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Speaker 5: I have five kids and now I work with troubled youths.

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Speaker 2: Did you repair the relationship with your parents? Sam or No? No, okay, nice,

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Speaker 2: Sometimes you don't need to was.

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Speaker 4: En updown and said the phenomenal story. Thank you for sharing.

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Speaker 4: That's wild, Lizien Abbotsford. What happened to you?

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Speaker 6: We were on a family holiday and my in Europe

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Speaker 6: and my grandfather became ill, so my parents went home

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Speaker 6: and left my sister and I in Rome. We decided

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Speaker 6: we didn't like Rome because the Italian men were following

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Speaker 6: us everywhere, so we decided to go skiing in Austria

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Speaker 6: and went to a small Austrian town called floodming go

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Speaker 6: On and was skiing on a mountain. My parents had

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Speaker 6: no idea where we were, so sometimes we would ring

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Speaker 6: from a pay phone and then just sort of can't

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Speaker 6: hear you and hang up the phone. And the Newere

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Speaker 6: soldiers had come across the Samara and men, and my

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Speaker 6: sister and I were just skiing with them on the mountain.

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Speaker 3: Living your best lifeless sixteen list.

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Speaker 5: It was so much fud.

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Speaker 3: Did your parents when you got back homeies, were you disciplined?

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Speaker 2: What happened?

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Speaker 1: I think they.

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Speaker 6: Were so stressed about my grandfather being ill, and one

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Speaker 6: of my family members was this was back in the eighties.

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Speaker 6: He's senior in the police force, so I think eventually

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Speaker 6: they contacted him to see that he could find out

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Speaker 6: where we were, and because it was we had bought

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Speaker 6: a train ticket and we were staying in a like,

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Speaker 6: not an airbnb, like their bed and breakfast, the own thing.

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Speaker 6: And I think after a while that they contacted the

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Speaker 6: police to try and find her, but that was after

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Speaker 6: a number of days, because they were the fool who

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Speaker 6: sort of left us.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, don't know how well it would have gone when

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Speaker 4: you got home to Sydney and you were there with

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Speaker 4: the two American soldiers you'd bought that.

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Speaker 2: For mom and dad.

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Speaker 6: You, Liz, have you grown out of this kind of behavior,

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Speaker 6: because it doesn't sound like it.

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Speaker 4: Probably that is great I'm not going to die wondering

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Speaker 4: Liz It's in Whipper with Kate Ritchie is a Nova

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Speaker 4: podcast or great shows like this, download the Nova player,

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Speaker 4: fight the app store or Google Play.