Parents have been known to leave their kids behind, but those roles were reversed when a young boy didn’t bring his parents with him on a drive, reports the Los Angeles Times. The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office received a call about a 12-year-old boy who had taken his parents’ truck for a joyride to his old school. He reportedly ran over several traffic cones in the school parking lot. As a former 12-year-old boy myself, I can understand the temptation. I was still staging massive Matchbox car pile-ups that would’ve been right at home in an episode of “CHiPs” at that age. As a former autocrosser, I now understand the two-second penalty applied for every cone knocked down.
Sheriff’s deputies caught up with the alleged cone killer shortly after leaving the school. They tried to stop him, but he wasn’t having it, putting his “Grand Theft Auto” skills to use. The chase was on.
A predictable outcome
Though there are exceptions, video games don’t usually translate well into real life. That was the case here, as the chase was short, though not without consequences. The boy allegedly crashed into a parked car and then into a sheriff’s car before the pursuit came to an end. The young suspect was taken into custody. The Ford Explorer Sport Trac looks heavily damaged in the front with a flat tire. That’s too bad, because the Explorer Sport Trac was a pretty cool truck in its time.
Since the suspect is a child, his name has not been released. We don’t know whether he will be charged with a crime in juvenile court, sent to counseling, or released to his parents. I suspect he would then have his video games taken away and be grounded for the rest of his life.
But seriously, this could have ended so much worse. We’ve seen a 10-year-old lead police on a chase in Arizona. In that case, his father was along for the ride, but that only made it worse. The youngest car thief we’ve seen, who also crashed into police on his way to school, was just nine years old. No chicken nuggies for you.
