As police continue to search for a man in a white car who took a Palmerston North girl from the street, they're reassuring the public such incidents are "very rare".
Shekinah Relies-Skipper, 5, was walking to school on Shamrock St with her sisters when a man pulled her into his car and drove off around 8:30am today.
A major area search including a helicopter was underway to find her.
Shekinah was found around 11am by 91-year-old man on Hind St, in an area she wasn't familiar with.
The man has still not been found and is not known to the girl.
But Inspector Sarah Stewart has sought to reassure the public incidents such as this don't happen often.
"Situations like this are very rare in New Zealand," she says.
Insp Stewart says a large police presence in nearby Shannon was because of a report of a similar car, but has been ruled out of the investigation.
Reports of police hunting a Mitsubishi Galant are also wrong.
Police are appealing for witnesses who saw the car around Shamrock St or Hind St as well as anyone with CCTV footage.
"It would be really unusual for a 5yo child to be dropped off on the side of the road by themselves, someone must have seen Shekinah being dropped off. They must call us, it is incredibly important."
Police say the family is cooperating with the investigation and are relieved Shekinah is safely back with the family.
The man who found Shekinah, Bill Gilliland, found her distraught after dropping his wife at a hair appointment, he told The New Zealand Herald.
"On the way back I saw her on the corner wandering around.
"I could see she was in trouble and it all started from there," he says.
Mr Gilliland, a retired farmer, could see she was lost.
He drove her around to see if she could see any familiar houses in case she was staying with relatives.
"She couldn't tell me where she came from."
Mr Gilliand then went back to his home where he called the police from his neighbour's house.
Newshub.
