HALLDEN PARRISH - 16 yo w/Autism - Odessa FL

It was the nightmare Mary and John Parrish had long feared.As
parents of five adopted children with special needs, one of whom is an
infant, the couple check on their children every two hours throughout
the night.About 2 a.m. Wednesday, they discovered that their
oldest, Hallden, a 16-year-old boy with autism, was gone.They
panicked, but figured they were ready for this moment.Hallden had
wandered from home before. So his parents bought their son a special
bracelet two months ago that transmits a radio signal every second and
helps authorities find missing people.Usually they can be found
in about 30 minutes, said Hillsborough Sgt. Jeff Massaro.Not
Tuesday. Parrish was completely off the radar.He had disabled the
house alarm, sneaked around special door and window locks, and got away
with both keys to the family's 2004 Suzuki Aerio, including one his mom
keeps near her bed."We were mortified when we realized the car
was gone," said Mrs. Parrish, 54.Hallden was not licensed to
drive and had never been behind the wheel. She feared the worst, that
perhaps he had driven into a lake.Instead, he went straight to
Citrus Park Town Center, about three miles away. Security guards watched
him for a couple of hours. Parrish told them he was waiting for the
mall to open. They left him alone until he smashed his car into a tree
in the mall parking lot, deploying both air bags.Then they called
deputies, who found him in the Aerio outside Dick's Sporting Goods.The
rubber bracelet, which threads through the plastic transmitter, was
still around his wrist. The transmitter was gone.No one knows
where it went or how it came off. That's a concern, Massaro said. "This
is the first experience like this that we've had," he said.Parrish
is the second Central Florida child with an autism-related disorder to
wander from home recently. Nadia Bloom, an 11-year-old Winter Springs
girl with Asperger's syndrome, was found in a swamp Tuesday after
getting lost Friday.She did not have the kind of tracking device
Hallden has.The Project Lifesaver program is meant for people
with Alzheimer's disease, dementia, Down syndrome and autism. Six have
signed up in Hillsborough County, including Parrish. All are males:
three have Alzheimer's, two have autism and one has dementia.Pinellas
has 25 people in the program, including an autistic teen who frequently
smashes the pins out of his transmitter, said Pinellas Sgt. Stacey
Barrentine. Young children with autism are more likely to "bang it
against things," he said.Sheriff's volunteers replace the battery
every 45 days. Parrish and her husband, 67, check the battery every
day. "That's our safety net," she said.Hallden attends the
Florida Virtual School and has ninth grade reading and math levels.Although
the transmitter didn't work, Hallden returned home, his lip bloody, the
car damaged, his shoes missing. But he came home and his mom is glad
he's alive.But why did he leave?Hallden had been
disobedient before he went to bed, so Mrs. Parrish took away her son's
iPod Touch.When he got home, Hallden told her he left because "he
wanted to go shopping and look for another iPod Touch."