Toddler Drives Toy Car Onto Florida Highway

Talk about born to be wild. A 3-year-old boy in Florida headed out on the highway, looking for adventure, in a motorized toy car this week, narrowly avoiding traffic, ABC News reports. A grownup motorist called 911 Wednesday after seeing the toddler—clad in a T-shirt and diaper—attempting to merge onto US Highway 19 in Crystal River. A number of drivers stopped to help the boy, reports WFLA. “I was shocked,” one witness says. “Could have ended a lot differently if not for the people who stopped.”

Police arrived to find that drivers had used their cars to make a protective "blockade" around the boy, who was sitting in his own, much smaller car in the highway's median, ABC reports. According to WFLA, the boy's father arrived about 10 minutes later. He says he was using the bathroom when his son managed to unlock the front door and escape. The boy drove two blocks from their home to the highway, cutting through backyards to avoid detection. The boy's father had been riding his bike around the neighborhood looking for his son. Florida's Department of Children and Families is investigating. (More Florida stories.)