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BRADENTON - Authorities credit the Amber Alert system with the safe recovery Monday of an 18-month-old child and the arrest of his alleged kidnappers.
A phone tip from a motorist led to the recovery of Deshaun Milner and the arrest of three men in Orlando, Manatee County Sheriff Charlie Wells said.
Police said a man went to Deshaun's grandmother's house Sunday night, seeking money owed to him. When Byron Houston, 25, couldn't get his money, he allegedly took the child.
An Amber Alert was issued early Monday, and a motorist on Interstate 4 called police after seeing a car matching the description of the one in the alert, Wells said.
Troopers stopped the car about 7:30 a.m. and arrested the driver, Nick Hargraves, 24, on possession of cocaine charges. That led them to an International Drive hotel, where the child was found and Houston and Marcus Houston, 18, were arrested. The Houstons were charged with kidnapping.
FDLE spokesman Larry Long credited the electronic road signs that flashed the alert information.
"It's a system that does work, and it did work in this case," Long said.