A mother of four was handcuffed and taken to jail in front of her children after she allowed her 11-year-old son to walk less than a mile into a small town.

Brittany Patterson went to take her oldest son to a medical appointment on Oct. 30, and her youngest son, 11-year-old Soren, was supposed to accompany her — but he wasn’t around when it was time to leave. Reason Magazine reports.

Patterson said he thought she was just playing in the woods or visiting her grandmother, noting that her father lived with them, while her mother and sisters lived just two minutes away.

But it turned out that Soren decided to walk to downtown Mineral Bluff, where only 370 people live, less than a mile from their home.

According to the magazine, he was spotted by a woman on the side of the road who asked if he was okay, and although he said he was fine, she called the police.

Brittany Patterson was handcuffed in front of her children and taken to jail after her son walked less than a mile into a small town.

A female sheriff’s deputy then picked up the child and called Patterson.

“He asked me if I knew he was downtown and I said ‘no,'” the mother said.

He said he was sorry that Soren went to the city without telling anyone, but he didn’t think there was any reason to worry.

“I didn’t panic because I knew the roads and knew he was mature enough to walk there without incident,” Patterson said of the street, where the speed limit is about 35 mph.

But Patterson said the deputy “kept talking about how he could be run over, or kidnapped, or ‘anything.'”

The deputy eventually took Soren home and dropped him off with his grandfather.

When Patterson finally returned home, he scolded his son for his behavior and thought that was the end of his sorrows.

But around 6:30 p.m. that night, a sheriff’s deputy arrived with another officer, handcuffed Patterson and brought him to the jail, where he was fingerprinted, mugshot taken and dressed in jail garb. according to an online fundraiser for his legal bills.

He said he did not understand what was happening because he grew up wandering and playing in the area and raised his children that way.

Patterson raises her children to roam and play unsupervised

The town of Mineral Bluff, Georgia, has only 370 people, and the road leading to it has a maximum speed limit of 35 mph.

Patterson was eventually released on $500 bail, but his troubles didn’t end there.

The next day, a case manager from the Department of Family and Children’s Services came to her home for a home visit and even interviewed Patterson’s oldest son at his school.

Everything seemed fine for Patterson, the case manager told Reason Magazine, but a few days later, the Department of Family and Children’s Services presented him with a ‘safety plan’ for him to sign.

This will require her to appoint a ‘safety person’ as a ‘knowing participant and guardian’ and to keep an eye on the children when she leaves home.

The plan also required Patterson to download an app to Soren’s cell phone to track his location, which Soren refused to do.

Instead, he reached out to attorney David DeLugas, president of ParentsUSA, a nonprofit organization that provides free legal aid to parents who are wrongly arrested and prosecuted for child neglect.

Patterson now faces reckless conduct charges, a $1,000 fine and a year in prison for refusing to download a tracking app on his son’s phone

An assistant district attorney has since told DeLugas that if Patterson told him about his security plan, the charges against him would be dropped.

But DeLugas responded by saying that if Patterson was forced to sign a safety plan just because his son walked somewhere without knowing his exact location, he would be prevented from visiting friends or having any independence.

Still, the deputy district attorney argued that Soren was in danger and therefore a security plan was necessary.

He now faces a reckless conduct charge, a $1,000 fine and a year in prison.