A young boy goes on an adventure, and a good Samaritan helps out

LEWISTON – Jamison Steadman got up Sunday morning and decided he had places to go. It was nice outside, the sun was shining and there were things to see. He put on his pants, shoes and hat, grabbed a backpack and headed out into the bright world.

The problem was that the pants were on backward, the shoes were on the wrong feet and he really had no idea where he was headed.

Jamison, 3, wandered away from his aunt’s house on Omar Street around 8:30 Sunday morning. The boy never announced his departure. His aunt, who was baby-sitting, never saw him leave.

Minutes later, Tina Binette of Lewiston was driving along Fair Street, a block away and across King Avenue, when she saw a strange sight – a small boy with backpack in tow strutting along like a veteran traveler of the world.

“I saw this little boy with no jacket and his shoes on (the wrong feet),” said Binette. “He had his backpack, but I thought he looked a little young to be waiting for a bus.”

Not wanting to frighten the child, Binette simply pulled to the side of the road and stepped outside to quiz the boy on his destination. She also called 911 on her cell phone.

Binette had been out delivering Girl Scout cookies with her own children, so they all played together while waiting for the police to arrive.

“She sat on the side of the road with him,” said Becky Steadman, Jamison’s mother. “She told him, ‘We’re going to find out where you belong.’ She was so great.”

Binette, 28, said it was no chore at all to baby-sit Jamison at the side of the road.

“He was a really smart boy,” she said. “He was very cute.”

Police officer Michael LaCombe arrived minutes later. The sight of a cruiser pulling to the side of the road at first startled the child.

“He thought he was being arrested,” Binette said.

But LaCombe put the boy’s mind at ease and soon had tracked down Jamison’s family. The child was returned to his aunt’s house. Then Jamison’s father, Gary, got a call from the police.

“They told me what happened, and I just couldn’t believe it. It just blew my mind,” he said Thursday. “That kid is not afraid of anything.”

“He loves Curious George,” said the boy’s mother. “And he’s just like him.”

Asked why he went on the Sunday morning walk-about, Jamison only grins and giggles a little. He’d rather play with toy cars or jump up and down on his bed. But his father got the truth out of him the day it happened.

“He said he couldn’t get the TV to come on, and it made him mad,” Gary said. “So he got dressed, took his backpack and left.”

Once Jamison was returned to his family Sunday morning, Binette went on her way. But the boy stayed in her mind the rest of the day.

“She called at about 5 that night to check up on him,” Steadman said. “I told her, ‘I don’t know what I can ever do to repay you.'”

No thanks necessary, said Binette, who has two children of her own.

“I’m just glad he’s safe, and I’m glad he has such a nice family,” Binette said. “I did what anyone would do, what I hope someone else would do for my kids. We all need to look out for the children.”