FREEPORT — Police say a boy found walking along I-295 this morning was playing a prank.

Freeport Police Chief Gerald Schofield said the boy’s prank “tied up a lot of people’s time and resources,” but
that the situation could have been worse.

The boy has been identified as a Yarmouth resident and his mother has been contacted.

Schofield would not say if police would file charges, only that the department was conducting interviews. 

“There are so many stories of children that end in tragedy, this is actually a good ending,” he said.

According to police, the Yarmouth boy, dressed only in black wind pants and a maroon race car bathrobe,
was picked up by a motorist traveling north on I-295 and brought to the
Freeport police at 8:21 a.m. The boy said he was 13 years old and from Boston, and said his name is Nick. He claimed to not know his last name or his date of birth.

Schofield said the boy’s story, including his name, turned out to be fiction.

Schofield said the mother was “caught by surprise” when contacted by police. After the boy was taken to the Freeport Police
Department, he was evaluated at Maine Medical Center. He was then taken
to Health and Human Services in Portland where the truth about his
identity was discovered.

Schofield speculated that the boy’s mother had left for work before he was supposed to leave for school. When he was picked up on the side of the highway, the boy used a false name, making it impossible for schools to match the names of the missing boy and those not at school.

Schofield said there would be more information to follow.

“We need to find out more about the family dynamics,” he said. “There are so many possibilities as to why he did this.”

Amy Anderson can be reached at 781-3661 ext. 110 or aanderson@theforecaster.net