Sometimes you just need a nap. Especially if you've got two first names like "Billy Joe": A guy from Mississippi apparently decided his kid should take over the wheel to drive Interstate 12 so he could sleep. Plus, two free hands--to crack open another beer once you wake up--are better than one.
Louisiana State Police got a call after 6 a.m. early on a Saturday about a green Chevy pickup truck that seemed to be driving erratically on I-12 in Livingston Parish. The phone tip to cops apparently revealed that the driver didn't look to be drunk, just small -- like kid-sized.
When LA Troopers stopped the pickup truck, they found a boy driving while dear old dad was fast asleep. 28-year-old Billy Joe Madden apparently need that nap in the passenger seat. To top it off, the 28-year-old's been busy with procreation skills: While his 8-year-old boy was driving, his 4-year-old daughter was chilling out in the back seat.
It wasn't a short drive. It seems Billy Joe was riding out his Friday night -- and rolling it right into Saturday morning. While dad was intoxicated, the 8-year-old apparently had instructions to drive from their hometown of Hattiesburg, Mississippi, to a Dallas destination.
Despite his physical presence in some form, Billy Joe got himself arrested on some charges including 'child desertion', 'parent allowing a minor to drive', 'open container' and some missing child restraint and seat belt charges.
It seems Billy Joe Madden's been taking lessons from Californian Terry Varner who threw his 11-year-old son in one car, following him while driving freeways in another vehicle last June 2011. Terry Varner was looking at $100,000 bail related to a "willful cruelty to a child resulting in possible injury or death."
Apparently things in Louisiana are less expensive than other parts of the country: Billy Joe Madden's bond to bail out was a bargain price of just $1,474 -- while Terry Varner got to pay about 67 times that amount in bail.