DD ran away - back now - advice please

[TheYakWanders]

On Saturday, my DD14 had a "playdate" with a friend, so I took her over there and left to go home. The child's mother was in the house but doing her own thing - they are teens and doing normal teen stuff or so we thought. The girls say they are going to the park... And the mother then gets a notification on her phone that a transaction has occurred on her card for the bus company. She rings me and immediately I felt my heart drop and guess they've run away to the city centre which is 20 minutes away. I drove like a bat out of hell to the city, parked in the bus station, started to wander and found them - unbelievable luck that I found them. They had two packed bags, and later we discovered they had stolen the mother's credit and debit cards and 2 knives (!!!!) for "self defence".
This has come out of the blue - my DD has never shown any indication of unhappiness or wanting to run away. She has an incredibly comfortable home life. How on earth do I navigate this fear and terror of someone running away who had absolutely no home life problems?? Please help. I feel totally adrift. She could have died.

She not 16, 18 or 35.

She's a 14 year old who has shown herself to be untrustworthy.

The judgement 🤣 Luckily the op is a lot more curious than a lot of posters on here. Absolutely nothing wrong with being a bit sheltered. Wish my kids were sometimes!

You need to have a very serious conversation about the knives. Tbh that's the aspect that would worry me the most. Admittedly, it's a bit different for us because we live in a city with large groups of secondary school children travelling to and from school on public transport, and they can be a bit aggressive and silly (mostly to each other) sometimes, but as a result I and most parents I know are already drumming into our pre-teens that it is never acceptable to carry a knife or engage in acts of physical violence. I've already had a few convos with my 8yo about it. Kids are often terrifyingly naive about the potential consequences and don't realise how easy it can be to get caught up in situations which spiral out of hand and where someone ends up injured, or god forbid, worse.

I know. My point stands.

Two 14yos getting the bus into town is hardly a reason to launch an emergency response, but the bag and knife IS concerning. That's the part you need to talk about.

Reading your follow-ups, it sounds like some distance from this other girl would be no bad thing. But your DD also needs opportunities to develop some independence. She should be able to get the bus with a friend, without you charging after them.