A boozy grandfather’s bright idea to pay a random homeless woman $20 while he sat on a barstool for a few kind of backfired on Monday when the woman refused to give the girl back due to his inebriation, touching off a frantic search by Sacramento County, California Sheriff’s deputies involving drones and a chopper before the girl was returned safely to her family, NBC News reports.

And yeah, it wasn’t the homeless woman who ended up in cuffs. Jason Warren, 54, was first contacted screaming for help finding the girl and claiming she “had been kidnapped for human trafficking,” per a SCSD statement. The woman, 34 year-old Lauren Jope, surrendered to cops after hearing the girl’s name called out from a helicopter loudspeaker during the search. “The female confirmed that Warren had given her money to take the child to the thrift store. She went on to tell deputies that Warren was highly intoxicated and she did not think he could care for the child… The female took the child to her ‘camp’ to get food. Deputies spoke with the child, who corroborated the ordeal,” said the sheriff’s statement. Warren was booked on suspicion of child endangerment.

“The guy was totally belligerently drunk and just kind of scary, he turned into a totally different person and so I got his granddaughter away until things kind of simmered down,” Jope told a local TV station. Sheriff’s deputies agreed. “We were miraculously lucky that it was Lauren that stepped in. She’s a guardian angel… I can’t sing her praises high enough,” said Sgt Amir Gandhi.