On Wednesday May 27, 2009, 7 year old Katja Leendertz was abducted by, at that time, unknown persons from the playground of her school in Ede, The Netherlands. Considering the seriousness of this situation, Gelderland-Midden Regional Police asked the National missing persons bureau to issue an AMBER Alert, within half an hour after the abduction.

The AMBER Alert was issued at 12:41 h. Within minutes radio, television and news sites started broadcasting the alert. Over 150,000 registered receivers of AMBER Alert were notified of the abduction by email, SMS, a message in Windows Live Messenger, RSS feed, via Hyves and iGoogle banners and on their computers and on large screens through the Netpresenter software.

Later that day the vehicle, used for the abduction and mentioned in the AMBER Alert, was found.

It has become known that Katja was taken by her father and is now in the United States. The court in Arnhem, The Netherlands, on May 29, 2009, has decided that Katja's father acted unlawfully by taking her. Katja should be in The Netherlands with her mother until a final decision on custody has been made. Click here for the Court's decision (only in Dutch).

By decision of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on March 3, 2010, Katja should be returned to The Netherlands. Click here for this decision of the District Court. A motion for a stay pending an appeal by the father was granted, postponing a possible return of Katja until after a decision by the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

On May 3, 2010 the Court in Arnhem awarded full and sole custody of Katja to her mother. Click here for this decision (in Dutch).

A request by Katja's father, to recognize the U.S. Court decision on custody over Katja in The Netherlands, was denied by the Court in Arnhem. Click here for this decision (in Dutch).

AMBER Alert was launched in The Netherlands on November 11, 2008. It is a national system to warn the public in case of child abductions or missing children cases if the child's life is at risk. With this joint initiative of software company Netpresenter and Dutch police as many people as possible can learn about child abductions through pop-ups on computers, large screens and screen savers, email, SMS, Instant messenger, newsfeeds and website Alerts, and on personal Hyves- and iGoogle-pages.

You can sign up to receive AMBER Alerts at www.amberalertnederland.nl.