Tampa’s ABC News affiliate reports:
A massive manhunt ensued after a Florida man tried to pawn his baby. Turns out, it was a prank gone wrong and the man is now speaking out. He’s very sorry for what happened. On Tuesday evening, a man entered the A&F Pawn shop in Sarasota and made a strange request to store owner Richard Jordan.
“The weirdest, strangest situation we’ve ever encountered,” said Jordan. “He put it on the counter, he was pretty serious about it. He spun the baby around, and said- can I pawn this?”
It lasted less than a minute, but after he left Jordan called the police. A few hours later, Brian Slocum realized he was all over the news. He called authorities to explain and soon dozens of officers were outside his home.
UPDATE: Man in the video released last night is the father of the child seen in the infant carrier. He’s identified as Brian Slocum. He claims his encounter with the clerk was a prank & he wanted to place his own video on social media. At this time, there are no criminal charges pic.twitter.com/UKsHnYLnuA
— SarasotaPD (@SarasotaPD) May 8, 2019
Brian Slocum is apologetic. His attempt to pawn his baby was a silly prank for Snapchat. He has a message to others: pic.twitter.com/mre6hO0r4i
— John Rogers (@WFLAJohn) May 8, 2019