ELK VALLEY (NEWS1130) – An Amber Alert for three-year-old Alvin Barnett has been cancelled.

The boy has been found safe with his father, Robert in Montana.

“The child has been safely located in the Whitefish, Montana area, which is in Flathead County, and the suspect is in custody,” says Jennifer Viets, the Amber Alert coordinator in that state.

“According to Undersheriff Dave Leib with the Flathead County Sheriff’s Office, on Thursday evening,” reads a release from Montana Attorney General Steve Bullock.

“Barnett approached a man at a bowling alley in Whitefish to ask for money and use of the man’s cell phone. During their conversation, the man agreed to buy Barnett breakfast in the morning and also told him he could sleep in his car outside the man’s house. This morning, when the man became aware that Barnett was the subject of the AMBER Alert broadcast throughout Montana last night, the man called 911,” it adds.

Mounties in the Elk Valley region of BC issued the alert yesterday afternoon. According to police, the young boy was spending time with his father during a supervised visit at a hotel. They say the pair left the room; police were called when they did not return.

If the father is charged, getting him back to Canada from Montana may not be a quick process. News1130 Legal Analyst Michael Shapray says if someone fights extradition, it can drag on.

“That would increase the amount of time it would take to get a person back to face charges, depending on the legal maneuvering that the person fighting extradition from a particular place decides to engage in,” he explains.

“Extradition’s not generally an easy process,” he adds. “Certainly, if someone decides that they’re going to hunker down and try and fight extradition, then they can certainly make it a more difficult process.