When an Australian father went to the police about his missing son, they assured him that he was simply overreacting – but it's a good thing that he didn't listen to them, because he turned out to be correct.

Tony Lethbridge of New South Wales, Australia first became concerned about his son Samuel when he woke up on Sunday morning and found that the 17-year-old had not yet returned from spending the previous night out with his friends.

Members of the local police department tried to soothe Lethbridge's nerves by saying it was a false alarm, but the dogged dad didn't believe it.

"When I saw the police, they thought he'd run away. I said ‘that's not Samuel.' When he doesn't show up or phone, something's seriously wrong," Lethbridge told the Associated Press.

He added: "I understand that they've got a lot to do and they hear this every day, but I took matters into my own hands and was thinking all night that tomorrow morning, I'm just going to get a helicopter and go looking for him because we're running out of time — it's been long enough."

Lethbridge then walked into the Skyline Aviation Group's office near their home in Lake Macquarie and asked for help.

Despite Lethbridge not having enough money to rent a helicopter at full price, the pilots decided to give him a discount in lieu of his dire story.

Within fifteen minutes of taking off, the helicopter crew spotted Samuel's car crashed in the bushes 12 miles from the family's home. While it was easy to spot from the chopper, it would have been near impossible to see from the road.

When rescue crews arrived at the scene of the crash, Samuel had already been caught in the wreckage for 30 hours – but he was still alive. He is currently being treated for multiple fractures at the hospital, while Samuel's family is simply grateful that he was found in time.

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