Had an upsetting experience this evening while visiting a family friend that's left me a bit shaken. My son (who is 10 and autistic) was in an animated, excitable sort of mood (talking loudly at everyone in an American accent about his special interest). When it was time to leave, instead of getting into the car he shouted 'lets go on an adventure' to his 5 year old sister and ran off with her following him. He has been known to run off before but only when he has been in meltdown, not when happy/overexcited. He can be impulsive, he also has no sense of direction or danger. I caught up with 5 year old and husband went after much faster 10 year old. A few minutes later my husband returned holding onto son tightly, walking back towards us. A man was following and started yelling at me that my husband had dragged son while he (son) was clearly shouting at him to stop. I tried to explain that my son is autistic and had run away but he shouted me down and said that he didn't care, and my husband was not fit to be around children and needed reporting. I'm really upset and anxious now. From my husbands point of view he was preventing a vulnerable 10 year old from running across a main road on his own in the dark and rain. He is very upset and thought he was doing the right thing to protect son. But I suppose an outsider saw things differently, was the man overreacting? Or was his reaction reasonable? What would you do if you saw a man dragging a protesting screaming child in the street?