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Report: 5-year-old without helmet given ride to Palatka daycare on felon's scooter

Ricky Robinson

A Putnam County man was arrested after he was spotted taking a 5-year-old to daycare on the back of a scooter, the Putnam County Sheriff's Office said.

Ricky Robinson, 58, was on felony probation for gun possession by a convicted felon, the report said. Robinson is charged with felony child neglect because the child was on the back of the scooter without a helmet.

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Robinson was pulled over at 12:38 p.m. on March 21 in Palatka after deputies spotted him and the child.

The child was completely unsecured -- without a helmet -- and nearly fell off the scooter multiple times, deputies said. Robinson, however, was wearing a helmet.

Deputies secured the child and called the boy's guardian and told her that Robinson had been arrested.

"They were only going up up the road," the guardian told deputies. "He wasn't even going to go fast. He always takes him on the motorcycle."

Deputies told the guardian that they would report this information to the Department of Children and Families, and she replied, "I just got him back in 2016. DCF had him in foster care for three years."

Charges are possible against the guardian because she allowed the child to be placed on the back of the scooter without protection.