Mixup Leaves 4-Year-Old Stranded In Oregon

Heydan Tuipulotu’s father thought he was with his mother, his mother thought he was with his father, and they were both wrong.

The couple pulled away from a Burger King restaurant Sunday morning in their separate vehicles, and the 4-year-old boy was left standing there.

The family was driving to Arizona. The father was driving a rental truck, the mother the family Jeep.

It wasn’t until they stopped at the California border some 80 miles to the south that they realized the boy was missing.

Restaurant employees meanwhile, called police, who picked the boy up.

“It was just an accident. Mom thinks he’s with dad. Dad thinks he’s with mom because there are two vehicles,” said Roseburg police Officer David Pierson. “It’s like ‘Home Alone.’ “

The frantic parents picked up their son that evening.