He was out on the water without an adult at the controls.
Video from Florida earlier this month shows a young boy operating a jet ski on his own before Sarasota police officers intervened and escorted him back toward shore.
“Where’s your parents?” an officer with the Sarasota Police Department asks the 8-year-old as he rides past a police boat on June 14, according to the footage.
The child is then seen pointing toward the shoreline, indicating where his father was waiting.
Officers followed the boy back to his dad and questioned the man about allowing his son to operate the personal watercraft alone.
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“Yeah, I’m sorry. I don’t know. I really don’t think he’s legal to ride, right?” the boy’s father told police, appearing apologetic.
He added that the family had been using jet skis on a lake for several years and said his son was “very proficient” on them.
Florida law requires a person to be at least 14 years old to operate a personal watercraft, or PWC.
The boy’s father was hit with a misdemeanor charge, according to authorities.
Officer Ron Dixon, who responded to the incident, told FOX 35 that the boy riding unattended was in a risky situation.
“If he would have been side by side with an adult, it probably would have been different. It would have been educational. This kid was off by himself. [There’s] so many different factors,” Dixon told the outlet.
The department encouraged those operating personal watercraft to take safety precautions, especially ahead of the Fourth of July holiday.
