SC Boy 11 Safe After Drives 3 Hours Alone To Meet Man He Met On ‘SnapChat’

CHARLESTON, S.C. (THECOUNT) — Officials in South Carolina say a boy has been reunited with his family after driving at least three hours alone in an attempt to meet up with an adult man he met on Snapchat, according to reports.

Officials say, the boy pulled up next to a Charleston police cruiser in the 1300 block of Rutledge Avenue when the officer realized the child was the only individual in the car.

The boy admitted to the officer that he had just driven himself three hours from the Simpsonville area before becoming lost, according to police.

“He told Officer Christopher 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,” reports Live5News.

The child provided 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 on the phone with Simpsonville police reporting his son missing.

The father then traveled to Charleston to retrieve the boy and a family member’s vehicle while the boy’s electronic device was placed in evidence for analysis.

Officials said they have launched an investigation into the “unknown male.”

Geo quick facts: Charleston, the South Carolina port city founded in 1670, is defined by its cobblestone streets, horse-drawn carriages and pastel antebellum houses, particularly in the elegant French Quarter and Battery districts. The Battery promenade and Waterfront Park both overlook Charleston Harbor, while Fort Sumter, a federal stronghold where the first shots of the Civil War rang out, lies across the water. Simpsonville is a city in Greenville County, South Carolina, United States. It is part of the Greenville–Mauldin–Easley Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 18,238 at the 2010 census, up from 14,352 in 2000. The population had risen to an estimated 20,736 as of 2015 – Wikipedia.