Elopement Solutions

I'll preface with I am not autism parent and I am not as knowledgeable about autism as I probably should be) however, my best friend has an autistic girl that quasi regularly elopes.

I'm a locksmith so I've helped where I can on the doors, but she's no dummy and know about windows. She gets it in her head that she's going somewhere and there is little anyone can do to change her mind. Sometimes she goes to the park, to my house, Burger King across a busy intersection etc. Police have gotten involved a few times, but most of the time they are less than helpful or down right condescending and dismissive.

This morning it happened somewhere between midnight and 5, I get a knock on the door at 5 am, and my best friend is in a panic, dropping her youngest with me so they can go look for her because she has left the house. They found her, she was at "Mimi's house"; Mimi has been dead for two years and her property was recently sold, and is about 2.5 miles from home (she was curled up in a closet upstairs asleep). I do what I can to support her when this happens, sometimes I join the hunt, other times I stay with the youngest and tell her to just take my car (it happens most often when she is left in the care of her father, grandparent, or in the middle of the night; it's not all the time but maybe 1-2 time every 6 months?). I'm usually around when it happens because I'm helping mom do something or we go have a couple mom hours to ourselves (I'm a single mom and she's a high stress mom, so we deserve a break!)

This morning when she came back to get the little, she said something she's never said before about considering putting her in secure facility. I know that's not what she wants, but I also understand wanting to be able to make sure your kid doesn't disappear, because danger (a multitude of dangers). I'm also positive she hasn't had a good night's sleep in over a decade.

What can they do? What can I do to help? The only LoJack system is pretty big and bulky, they have a watch version with a lock and key but I'm not sure she will tolerate it. (She is sensitive about what touches her skin... which I get because I still live that life and had many meltdowns over not wearing certain things because of how they felt... my parents beat that out of me). But didn't find much else in suggestions to prevent elopement.

Are there other options? I have my own "system" when I'm helping look, she has a pattern, so I just go to her favorite places, it doesn't always work though because I have no idea what route she takes to get there.