Your cellphone may have awakened you recently in the early morning hours. If you checked it, you learned an Amber Alert had been issued in connection with the disappearance of a 6-year-old boy.

But within hours, law enforcement agencies had found the child. His mother, her parents and her brother were arrested. Police say someone used an ax to break through the door of the boy’s father’s home in Wheeling, W.Va., then took the youngster.

Wheeling and Moundsville police, West Virginia state police and the Marshall County Sheriff’s Department were involved in finding the boy and making arrests in the case.

All too often, Amber Alert situations result in children missing for days, months, even years. The system was put in place to enlist the public’s invaluable help in keeping that from happening.

In some cases, Amber Alert tips have been critical in finding and rescuing abducted children.

This time, however, police and sheriff’s deputies moved so quickly and decisively that tips from the public were not necessary. All involved deserve praise — but, we suspect, knowledge the little boy was safe was all the thanks any of them wanted.