After a frantic all-day search, a volunteer found the 3-year-old California boy allegedly lost by his intoxicated father safe, sleeping peacefully strapped into his car seat in a parking garage.
A private citizen who joined the police search located Dylan Kurihara Sunday night, some 25 hours after he was last seen leaving a wedding in an SUV with his father at the wheel, Pasadena police chief Phillip Sanchez told reporters at a news conference.
Sanchez said Dylan "is in good shape and none the less for wear," but said paramedics were examining him.
Dylan and his father Joe Kurihara, 23, left the wedding at a Pasadena Masonic lodge at about 9:30 p.m. Saturday night.
About an hour later, police arrested Joe Kurihara on suspicion of public intoxication, police said. The father was alone and on foot and police said he was too drunk to remember he had left the wedding with his child.
that the garage was only two blocks away from the site of Kurihara's arrest.
The boy's mother reported the pair missing Sunday morning, which set off the search.
Volunteer praised, dad in jail
Some 50 police officers and many private citizens, including the man who found Dylan — identified by the Times as 39-year-old Rowdy Metzger — combed Pasadena and surrounding areas for about 14 hours until the boy was found.
Police praised Metzger's willingness to help, with the Times quoting Pasadena Police Cmdr. Darryl Qualls as saying that the volunteer joined the search because "he said he had some kids about the same age and needed to get out and see if he could help."
Police said they took Kurihara back to the wedding site to jog his memory, but he could not remember where he had left the boy and the car.
Joe Kurihara was being held on $10,000 bail Sunday night. Police reached by phone said they did not know whether he had hired an attorney.
"We're looking at all possible charges that would be associated with this," Sanchez said.