A man who thought he was protecting two children instead was interfering where he shouldn't have, police said. Also, they said he was really drunk.

The incident occurred at 3:30 p.m. Friday near Will-Moore Elementary School in Bismarck. A man said he saw two kids playing in the street, so he walked over and moved them to the boulevard because he was afraid they'd be hit by a car. Soon afterward, a minivan pulled up and the kids went to get in it.

The man, who police said was highly intoxicated, said he thought the whole scene appeared strange. He asked the kids - a 5-year-old boy and a 7-year-old boy - if the driver was their dad. They reportedly said no. So the man jumped into the minivan with the kids.

A woman in the van said the man tried to grab the kids; the driver took them and ran from the vehicle. An undercover police officer watched the whole thing happen. He called uniformed officers, who showed up to defuse the situation. It turned out that the woman in the van was the boys' mother. They'd come to pick the kids up from school. The driver, an acquaintance of the woman, wasn't the kids' father - so they weren't lying to the drunk man who thought he was helping them.

It was unclear Monday whether the man would face charges.

- Tony Spilde