According to the police, the driver who was driving on the highway in Florida was 9 years old

It is assumed that a drunk driver was driving “throughout the carriageway” in Crestview, Florida, turned out to be a completely sober 9-year-old boy, according to the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office.

However, this is not the most surprising part of the story.

He was stopped after giving an adult man a ride home, according to the sheriff’s office.

It happened around 8 a.m. Sunday, Oct. 9, and a witness to the boy driving is the one who alerted deputies, according to a sheriff’s news release. Crestview is about 150 miles west of Tallahassee on the Florida Panhandle.

“A witness observed a vehicle entering Oak Hill Road from the area around 8 a.m. (Sunday) and suggested the driver was impaired due to the vehicle being across the roadway,” the office said. the sheriff.

“He stopped the car near the intersection of Highway 85 and Old Bethel Road and noticed that a child was driving. He told the child to get into the passenger seat and pulled the car into the parking lot of a walk-in store.”

The 9-year-old boy was alone in the car and told deputies he was returning home after giving a 22-year-old man a ride to a residence on Brickhill Court — about 7 miles away, officials said.

“The child … had traveled nearly three miles when a witness intervened,” the sheriff’s office said.

“When the child’s mother was contacted, she said she did not know the boy had left the house.”

The investigation led to the Oct. 10 arrest of a 22-year-old Crestview man on charges of “child neglect without serious injury” and possession of less than 20 grams of marijuana, jail records show.

“The suspect told deputies that his decision was a ‘mistake’, but did not elaborate,” officials said.

Investigators have not said who owned the car or how the boy knew the suspect.

“We want to express our sincere gratitude to the witness who noticed something was wrong and intervened, potentially preventing a tragedy involving a child,” Okaloosa County Sheriff Eric Aden said in a release.