A 5-year-old boy who was seen running down the side of the road was taken into police custody after officers found him alone at a Warrenville bar, according to the Aiken County Sheriff's Office.
Officers received a number of complaints about a juvenile seen running down the side of the road in Warrenville about 9:15 p.m. Thursday, according to a sheriff's report.
Officers found the boy at a bar near the corner of Howlandville Road and Augusta Road.
The boy didn't have visible injuries, but officers saw he had been crying, police said. They tried to get information from him to locate his mother or where he lived but were unsuccessful, police said.
A witness told officers that he saw a dark-color vehicle with a heavyset white male driver in the Family Dollar parking lot next door, the report states. The witness told officers he saw the vehicle drive off "and noticed the victim was left behind by that individual."
An officer took custody of the boy and turned him over to a juvenile investigator.
The Aiken Standard will have more information on this story as it becomes available.
Teddy Kulmala covers the crime beat for the Aiken Standard and has been with the newspaper since August 2012. He is a native of Williston and majored in communication studies at Clemson University.