A suspected drunk driver who drove “over the roadway” in Crestview, Florida, was found to be a completely sober 9-year-old boy, according to the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office.
However, that’s not the strangest part of the story.
He was stopped after giving a grown man a ride home, the sheriff’s office says.
It happened about 8 a.m. Sunday, Oct. 9, and a witness to the boy’s driving is the one who alerted officers, the sheriff’s office said in a press release. Crestview is located about 150 miles west of Tallahassee, on the Florida Panhandle.
“A witness saw a car drive into Oak Hill Road from a neighborhood around 8 a.m. (Sunday) and suspected that the driver was disabled because the vehicle was all over the roadway,” the sheriff’s office said.
“He cut off the car at the intersection of Highway 85 and Old Bethel Road and saw a child behind the wheel. He told the child to sit in the passenger seat and pulled the car to a parking lot near a supermarket.”
The 9-year-old boy was alone in the car and told officers he was returning home after giving a 22-year-old man a lift to a residence on Brickhill Court – 11 miles away, officials said.
“The child … had traveled nearly three miles when the witness intervened,” the sheriff said.
“When contacted, the child’s mother said she was unaware that the boy had left the house.”
An investigation led to the arrest on Oct. 10 of a 22-year-old Crestview man charged with “neglecting children without major bodily harm” and possessing less than 20 grams of marijuana, prison records show.
The suspect “told deputies his decision was a ‘mistake’ but declined to comment further,” officials said.
Investigators would not say who owned the vehicle or how the boy knew the suspect.
“We would like to express our sincere gratitude to the witness who noted that something was wrong and intervened and possibly prevented a tragedy involving a child,” Okaloosa County Sheriff Eric Aden said in the press release.
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