Imagine you want to pick up your child from school and realize that he or she is not there.

Waldo Rivera said that’s exactly what happened last Monday when his wife went to pick up their 8-year-old son from Charles R. Drew Elementary Magnet School in Pompano Beach.

The family told NBC6 that Jeremy, who has autism, wasn’t supposed to ride the bus last week – but when his mother came to pick him up from school, he wasn’t there.

“We live in a world without security, where you leave your child behind and think they are there when they are not,” Rivera said.

The family soon learned that Jeremy was put on a bus and dropped off more than three miles from school.

Rivera said a Good Samaritan saw his son at the bus stop and noticed he looked lost.

“I asked him, ‘So you know your mother’s number?’ He said yes, so we called the mother,” said Keiry Herrera.

Hererra stayed with the eight-year-old for over an hour until his parents picked him up.

“I told her, ‘Don’t worry, ma’am, I’m a mother too. I’ll take care of him,'” she said.

Broward County Public Schools said the 8-year-old’s busing privileges did not take effect until the following day and released a statement that said, in part, “Upon learning of this incident, the principal immediately investigated and revised the school’s policies to ensure a similar situation does not occur in the future. The principal continues to be in contact with the student’s parents.”

The family said they met with school staff last Thursday to make sure something like this never happens again.