Due to unfortunate circumstances, which I won't get into on here, my grandson (21 months) has been living with me for the last 8 or 9 months. He's my #1 sidekick and our bond is obvious to all but the densest of minds.

Saturday afternoon (7/31) he and I went to an outlet mall nearby because I needed some new jeans, and he's in need of some new clothes, himself.

We stopped after about an hour to have a hot dog and then decided that some ice cream sounded good. We made our way to an ice cream kiosk/booth - bags in hand - and bought 2 cups of ice cream, then found a bench to sit down.

Now, to set the scene, my grandson insists on copying everything I do, right down to the way I dress. If I'm wearing boots, he too must wear boots. Same goes with ball cap, t shirt, etc.

On this day, we were both wearing college apparel from my Alma mater. Hat and t-shirts were almost identical. Jeans and converse chucks as well. He was my mini-me.

As we're eating our ice cream and he's pointing at different objects, people, etc., I hear someone say "Sir, do you have any ID?" I turn to look and its a male and female officer. No "how we doing?" or anything. Just ID.

Long story short, someone had called them because its suspicious for a 49 year old man to have such a young toddler with him, and I was suspected of possibly abducting him.

Nevermind him screaming as soon as they picked him up and began turning him where he couldn't see me. Forget that we were eating ice cream together, dressed alike and he kept pointing and saying "Pop. NO!" while they put me in in cuffs for my own protection. (I guess I shouldn't have been questioning them.)

I complied with every request. I explained at least 10 times, who I was and why I had him - the whole history leading from his birth til now, to what ended up being 6 different officers; all the while listening to my boy cry hysterically.

In the end, a sergeant decided that I was okay, and let us leave, but I'm afraid this scare is going to stick with the boy for awhile. It was a nightmare, trying to drop him at daycare this morning.

I never had to deal with this with my two (no grown) children. How does one go about getting some kind of official ID that matches a child to a specific adult? I don't want to experience this again, just because I'm a man.

Anyone else had to deal with this?