A Florida man, 35, who was delivering food for Uber Eats, has been arrested after his young special needs son was found wandering alone and unclothed along a highway. Jeremy Jaron Rouse, who allegedly continued his deliveries to maintain his delivery rating, was charged with one count of cruelty toward a child by child abuse without great bodily harm, a felony, according to court records.
The incident began when an officer from the Altamonte Springs Police Department responded to a report of an unattended child on an on-ramp of Interstate 4 around 11:06 p.m. on Oct 16. The officer found a juvenile running naked down the westbound on-ramp of I-4, with an adult male chasing after him, managing to grab the boy just before he entered oncoming traffic. The child’s age was not disclosed by authorities.
The boy, who appeared to be nonverbal and possibly autistic, was unidentified until a 911 call came in about a missing child fitting his description. Rouse, identified as the father, and an unidentified woman agreed to meet the officer and the child at a nearby Walgreens. However, only the woman who had reported the child missing arrived to pick him up.
The woman told police that she and Rouse had been delivering for Uber Eats that evening with the boy in the back seat. She fell asleep around 9:30 p.m. and when she woke up at 11:30 p.m., she discovered the boy was missing. When she asked Rouse about the boy’s whereabouts, he seemed surprised and said he thought the child had been sleeping while he picked up food orders. Rouse allegedly admitted that he had not checked on the boy while the woman was asleep.
The pair returned to the shopping center where they had been picking up orders to search for the boy. They noticed patrol vehicles stopped on I-4 with emergency lights activated and called 911, hoping the police had found the child. After confirming the police had the child, Rouse allegedly continued driving, passing the patrol vehicles and exited at another ramp.
The woman was advised to meet officers at the Walgreens off Wymore Road, but Rouse refused to turn around, fearing he would be blamed for the incident. The woman drove alone to Walgreens, arriving approximately 53 minutes after the police had arrived and been waiting with the child.
Later that evening, around 3:30 a.m., Rouse approached law enforcement at a local Wawa. He admitted that he had continued his delivery route after realizing the child was missing, as he did not want to negatively affect his UberEats rating. He also admitted that he let the woman pick up the child alone because he feared being arrested.
The woman, whose name is redacted from the document, may face charges of child cruelty for allegedly allowing Rouse to continue his deliveries after the boy went missing and perjury for allegedly lying to the officer about the incident. Rouse was released on a $5,000 bond and is scheduled for arraignment on Dec. 2.