A 35-year-old man from Florida has been arrested after allegedly abandoning his young son with special needs, who was subsequently discovered running naked along a highway. The father, identified as Jeremy Jaron Rouse, was reportedly out delivering food for Uber Eats at the time.

Rouse allegedly continued his delivery errands, citing concerns about his delivery rating, which led to his arrest. He now faces a felony charge of child abuse without causing great bodily harm, according to court documents obtained by Law&Crime.

The incident unfolded when an officer from the Altamonte Springs Police Department responded to an emergency call at around 11:06 p.m. on October 16. The call reported an unattended child near the on-ramp of Interstate 4.

Upon arrival, the officer encountered a young boy running unclothed down the I-4 westbound on-ramp. An adult male, who later provided a witness statement, was seen chasing after the boy and managed to stop him just before he ran into traffic. Authorities have not released the child’s age.

While attempting to identify the nonverbal child, who appeared to have autism, police received a 911 report about a missing juvenile matching his description. Rouse, along with an unidentified woman, contacted the police and arranged to meet at a nearby Walgreens to reunite with the child.

However, only the woman who had initiated the 911 call arrived at the Walgreens to retrieve the boy.

The woman told police she and Rouse had been delivering for Uber Eats that evening with the boy in the back seat. She said she fell asleep at about 9:30 p.m. and when she awoke at 11:30 p.m., she “realized that [the boy] was missing from his seat, which only contained the child restraint system.”

When she asked Rouse where the boy was, she said he “appeared shocked,” and said he “thought the child had been sleeping while he picked up food orders.” Asked if he checked on the boy while she slept, Rouse allegedly said ” he had no idea the juvenile was missing.”

They then drove back to the shopping center where the restaurants were located to search for the boy, which is when they saw the patrol vehicles stopped on I-4 with the emergency lights activated and called 911 in hopes they had found the child.

After confirming police had the child, the woman said Rouse “continued driving eastbound on I-4, passing the patrol vehicles” where officers were speaking with the witnesses who had saved the boy, and instead got off at another exit.

“While on the phone with dispatch, [the woman] was advised to meet officers at the Walgreens off Wymore Road,” the affidavit said. “[Rouse], however, refused to turn around, telling [the woman] he did not want to return to Altamonte Springs because he was afraid he would be blamed for the incident. [The woman] then drove alone to Walgreens, arriving approximately 53 minutes after [police] had arrived and been waiting with the juvenile.”

After providing a written and sworn statement, police said the woman “recanted her entire statement.”

At about 3:30 a.m. that same evening, the same officer responded to a local Wawa because Rouse was “at the location requesting to speak with law enforcement.”

Rouse allegedly said that earlier in the evening, he had picked up food from the Wawa and was driving to the delivery destination when they “realized the juvenile was no longer in the vehicle.”

“[Rouse] admitted that instead of immediately returning to search for the child, he continued his delivery route from Northlake Blvd to SR 436 and then onto I-4, passing several marked patrol units,” the affidavit says. “He continued toward Winter Park to complete his delivery, despite knowing the autistic, nonverbal child was missing. Jeremy stated he did not want to negatively affect his UberEats rating.”

After completing the delivery, Rouse said he got out of the car and let the woman pick up the child alone because he “feared being arrested due to the incident.”

Though the woman’s name is redacted from the document, it appears that the officer has recommended that she be charged with child cruelty for allegedly allowing Rouse to “continue to make food deliveries” after the boy went missing and perjury for allegedly lying to the officer about what took place that evening.

Rouse was released on $5,000 bond and is scheduled to appear for his arraignment on Dec. 2, records show.