Kevin Neil Rider
Third Incident Relative to Prozac Effect

Another incident I want to put in writing happened during the early morning hours of 
September 12, 1998.   We received a call at around 4:00 AM in the morning from the Orem 
Police Department, asking if we were the parents of Kevin Rider.  You can imagine the alarm
a parent feels when receiving such a call.  The officer told me they had Kevin over at the 
church parking lot, and asked if we would please come over.  When we arrived, there were two
police cars, two policemen, and Mr. Sam Cardon.  Kevin was chest down against the hood of 
one of the police cars, crying hysterically.  I couldn't imagine what was going on.  He had 
never been in any kind of trouble.  One of the officers explained that they had received a 
call from Mr. Cardon - he thought someone was on his roof.  He couldn't imagine how anyone 
could be on his roof, as the lowest edge is quite a distance from ground level.  He himself 
needed a ladder to get on top.   

Then the station received another call from someone in the same vicinity who said someone 
was out in the neighborhood shining flashlights into cars.  One officer went to meet with 
Mr. Cardon.  The other began a search of the neighborhood.  The second discovered Kevin as 
he was walking through the church parking lot.  He stopped Kevin to question him.  Kevin 
said "he had been out to see where this girl friend lived".  When I heard this, I was 
surprised because Kevin had never mentioned any girl that he liked.  And he was only twelve 
years old! The officer who had questioned him thought that Kevin was "acting strange", and 
so he searched him.  They discovered on his person  ski goggles, a knit hat, surgical gloves
and a flashlight.   I was incredulous.  I tried talking to Kevin, but he was still quite 
distraught.  The only thing I could understand between sobs is that he wanted to find out 
where Chelsea lived.  Chelsea happened to be Mr. Cardon's daughter.  The officer asked Mr. 
Cardon if he wanted to press charges.  

Now at this point, I have to admit that although I did not know Mr. Cardon well, we had 
previously had occasion to meet regularly at Scout Roundtables, and I had taught his son a 
merit badge course.  At that time, I was also serving as the Primary president of our local
LDS ward, and had often run into him in the halls of our local chapel, and in various other
church related settings.   I remember Mr. Cardon just shaking his head,  and he said 
something like, "kids do funny things... you know I was a kid once", and he said he wouldn't
press charges if Kevin would promise to not get on his roof again.  Through his sobs, Kevin 
gave his word, and we took him home.  
The next morning, I sat down with Kevin to find out what on earth he had been thinking.  
He wasn't even able to understand himself why he had done what he had done.  I asked him how
he even knew where Chelsea  lived, and why on earth had he gone at that hour, and for 
heaven's sakes, why did he get on their roof?  He said he had looked up her address in the 
phone book some time ago.  As to his behavior, he just couldn't come up with an answer.  
All he said is, "I don't know mom... I was thinking I was a detective...."  "A detective! 
I exclaimed.  Is that why you had the ski goggles and the knit cap and all that other stuff?
You would appear to be more of a burglar!  You are lucky Sam didn't come out with a gun 
and shoot you!"  He was so embarrassed about his unexplainable behavior that he didn't want 
to go to school.  I can't remember if he went the following Monday or not.  

I have read case stories of those on Prozac who had a hard time differentiating between what
is real and what is imagined.  Was Kevin going through this phenomena at this time?  What 
was going on in his thoughts ?