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Florida man doesn’t want kid ‘to be soft.’ So cops say he took the boy on a crime spree

Bring Your Child to Work Day got a distinctively Florida twist when a man brought an 8-year-old boy along on a multi-county crime spree.

The guy’s reason, according to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office: “I was trying to toughen him up. I don’t want him to be soft.”

Sheriff’s arrested 36-year-old Ernest McKnight III, a Lake Wales man, on Thursday after they say he committed a series of crimes over several days — some while he was accompanied by the child.

McKnight III was booked into Polk County Jail and charged with burglary of an occupied dwelling, burglary of an unoccupied dwelling burglary of unoccupied conveyance, grand theft motor vehicle, tampering with evidence, petit theft and three counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor for taking the boy along.

“Taking a child out with you while you’re committing felonies is not the proper way to create a positive influence. I’m quite confident that there is not a child psychologist out there who would agree with this guy’s idea of proper activity for a child,” Polk Sheriff Grady Judd said in a media release.