Off-duty Florida police officer helps save child

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35) - Daytona Beach Police Officer Troy Bleden is a member of the SWAT team, an experienced sniper, and part of the police department's crime suppression team.  When he's off duty and ordering food, he can help too.

Officer Belden just happened to be in the McDonald's drive-through on State Road 44 in New Smyrna Beach on Friday, when he knew something wasn't right.

He said he saw a man  following a 12-year-old boy from inside the restaurant toward his family's car.  Then suddenly, he said the man jumped in the kid's car.

"It's like he did a Superman dive into the passenger seat, trying to get to the children. Once they started screaming, I jumped in," Belden explained. 

Belden said he ran to the car and grabbed the man. 

"I grabbed him by the shirt, he tried to run away from me," he said.  "At that point, I brought him to the ground."

The boy's father ran to get Officer Beldon's handcuffs and the man, later identified as 54-year-old Robert Todd Sawyer, was subdued. 

Sawyer was arrested and charged with kidnapping/confinement of a child, possession of narcotics paraphernalia, and burglary.  He has since bonded out of jail on a $55,500 bail..  The boys were unharmed, authorities said.