Before the sun was fully up and long before the rest of his family stirred, William, a 5-year-old boy in Jacksonville, Florida, quietly climbed out of bed and decided his parents deserved a little more sleep. He felt hungry, and rather than wake anyone, the preschooler settled on a plan that made perfect sense to him: he would take himself out for breakfast.
Moments later he slipped out of the house, through a gate, and padded barefoot down the block to the nearby Chick-fil-A he knew from weekend outings.
In body camera footage, released by the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office (JSO), William, still in his nightshirt, appears utterly at ease, his small legs swinging beneath the table as he sipped a drink and worked his way through a box of chicken minis, which the Chick-fil-A manager had quietly provided free of charge…