September 24, 2019 at 10:07 AM EDT - Updated September 24 at 3:39 PM
CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - Charleston police say an 11-year-old boy has been reunited with his family after he drove three hours by himself to try and meet up with a man he met on Snapchat.
Around 12:30 a.m. Monday morning, the boy pulled up next to Charleston officer Christopher Braun in his police cruiser in the 1300 block of Rutledge Avenue when Braun realized the child was the only person in the car.
The boy told Braun that he had just driven three hours from the Simpsonville area and was lost, according to police spokesman Charles Francis.
“He told Officer Braun he took his brother’s car and drove to Charleston to live with an unknown male he met on SnapChat," Francis said. “His father’s Insignia tablet lost the GPS signal that was directing him to the address in Charleston. When he lost the GPS signal, he lost the address and he was unable to recover it because SnapChat messages disappear or are deleted after they are read.”
The child gave the officer his name his father’s name and his father’s phone number. When the officer called the boy’s father, the dad was in the process of reporting his son missing with the Simpsonville police department.
The father then drove to Charleston to pick up the boy and the car while the tablet was placed in evidence for analysis.
Francis said they have launched an investigation into the “unknown male."
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