Chain of Alabama officers helps robbed, stranded Indiana man with autism make his way home

MORGAN COUNTY, Ala. — William Bolin thought he was taking a Fourth of July weekend road trip to the beach with some “friends” and, instead, found himself robbed and stranded in Montgomery, Alabama, on Sunday night.

Although Bolin, 23, was abandoned at a gas station with no phone and no money, a happenstance network of law enforcement officers across the state worked tirelessly to ensure the Indiana resident with autism made the nearly 600-mile trek home to Indianapolis.

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“It’s just a testament to the officer in Montgomery who began this chain and all the ones that followed suit to get that young man back to Indiana,” Mike Swafford with Morgan County Sheriff’s Office told WXIN.

The sheriff’s office recounted Bolin’s ordeal in a Facebook post, noting his travel companions left him with “nothing but the clothes on his body” and allegedly stole the money Bolin had worked several days to earn mowing lawns.

According to the post, officers with the Montgomery Police Department attempted to reach Bolin’s family in Indianapolis but were told that his father died during the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks and that his disabled, diabetic mother who only has one leg was physically unable to retrieve him from such a distance.

Roughly 567 miles separate Montgomery and Indianapolis, so the impromptu escort chain began.

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Officers in Montgomery reportedly transported Bolin to a Waffle House in Vestavia Hills, Alabama, where officers with the Vestavia Hills Police Department attempted unsuccessfully to book bus and plane tickets for him. Instead, the VHPD officers transported Bolin to the Fultondale Police Department, who handed him off to a Cullman County Sheriff’s deputy, who bought him something to eat before a sergeant with the Morgan County Sheriff’s Office picked him up.

Bolin and the officer, identified only as Sgt. Ferguson, then connected with a Limestone County Sheriff’s Office lieutenant near Huntsville, Alabama, and Ferguson slipped Bolin $20, wishing him well on his continued journey, WXIN reported.

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