Dakota County officials are deciding whether to pursue charges against a Burnsville couple after their 9-year-old son was scooped up late at night by police as he was walking along a busy Dakota County street. He was in search of his parents, who had gone out for drinks.

The boy, who had been left alone, was about three-quarters of a mile away from his home.

The case has been turned over to social service investigators while authorities try to determine whether the couple, both 33, would face charges or whether the boy should be removed from the home, police in Eagan said Monday.

According to police records:

Police were called to Casper's Cherokee of Eagan restaurant and bar about 11:45 p.m. Friday regarding a boy "walking around the parking lot."

An officer caught up with the boy at nearby Cliff and Nicols roads. He said he had been home alone for more than an hour while his parents went out for drinks. He tried to call them, but they did not answer.

A manager at Casper's paged the parents — the mother had been there earlier — but they did not respond. Police then took the boy home, retracing his path along busy Cliff Road.

The boy's mother "was home and intoxicated" when police showed up with her son. She said she had just returned from Fitz's Bar & Grill in Eagan and thought her husband and son were together. An additional call to the father's cellphone went unanswered.

Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482