Firm Aims to Help Locate Missing Kids

What do plumbing trucks have in common with milk cartons? Helping find missing children, at least some of them.

A few months ago, Norm Wigginton and Rebecca Gold of Wigginton’s Plumbing in Sylmar put three blown-up pictures of missing children on the sides of three of their business trucks so the photographs could be seen in the Southern California neighborhoods the trucks serve.

“Missing children has always been a passion of mine,” Wigginton said, although neither he nor Gold have had missing children in their families, they said.

Wigginton, 32, the president, and Gold, 31, the vice president, opened their company in 1991. It has seven employees and five trucks that travel mainly in Los Angeles County.

“It was a little difficult at first,” Gold said of the initial research.

They could not find another business that had tried something similar to ask about the cost and which law enforcement agencies to contact.

Finally, they approached the California Department of Justice, which seemed intrigued by the idea, Gold said.

The officials agreed to release photographs and information about some children to the plumbing company--but not before running FBI checks on Wigginton, Gold and the other employees.

Then Wigginton and Gold ordered three aluminum frames with weather-proof covers, big enough to carry the 3-by-2-foot blowups of the photos.

They spent about $2,000 to get the pictures on the street, they said.

Eventually the photographs will be rotated, Gold said. The three currently on the trucks are:

* Crystal Tymich, white, about 4 feet tall with blond hair and hazel eyes, born Sept. 23, 1987. She has been missing from South Los Angeles since June 30, 1994.

* Nancy May Huang, Asian, about 5 feet 4 inches tall with brown hair and eyes, born Sept. 15, 1982. She was last seen in Rowland Heights on April 30, 1996.

* Jessica Eva Hill, white, about 4 feet tall with blond hair and blue eyes, born Sept. 29, 1987. She was last seen in Tulare on Sept. 2, 1995.

The pictures have not drawn increased business but have received positive reaction from citizens and law enforcement.

People come up to the sidewalks where the trucks park and look at the pictures, Wigginton said. On the highway, motorists honk in approval.

“I had one Hell’s Angels-type biker come up in the freeway and say, ‘Hey, that’s cool, man,’ ” Wigginton said.

With three already posted, he hopes the cost will be less for two more pictures they want to mount on their remaining two trucks, Wigginton said.

They also want to get other plumbing, heating and cooling companies to adopt the program.

Recently, they traveled to Toronto for a conference of the National Assn. of Plumbing, Heating and Cooling Contractors and made a presentation to colleagues from Canada and the United States, Gold said. Their colleagues also seemed intrigued by the idea, and about 40 expressed interest in doing the same.

The president of the Virginia-based association said he could possibly assemble an information package on how to carry out the project and make it available to the membership, Gold said. Some Los Angeles-area companies have also called to find out more.

“It’s very exciting,” she said. “We may have hundreds of companies who may be doing it.”