The Detroit Free Press: 7-year-old driver: Police question how he got so far, who taught him how
Barefoot and wearing pajamas, the boy was too small to even see over the steering wheel of the car.
But that didn't stop him. The 7-year-old Sheridan Township boy reportedly stood up on the floorboard of his stepfather's red Pontiac Sunfire, gripping the wheel with his hands and accelerating with one foot on the gas pedal.
The boy's jaw-dropping 20-mile ride, which ended when police got him to stop by boxing him in near the bridge over the Pigeon River outside Caseville....
So the kid drives, apparently in a pretty speedy fashion hitting 60 mph for 20 miles without an accident.
Obviously this kind of initiative cannot go unpunished: Family puzzled as to why 7-year-old took a 20-mile drive
Now, the boy, who was safely stopped by police Monday morning outside of Caseville -- and found barefoot and in his pajamas in his stepfather's red Pontiac Sunfire -- faces a juvenile charge of unlawful use of an automobile in Huron County Probate Court.So we need criminal charges against a 7 year old to figure out his motives and "help" him?
Huron County Prosecutor Timothy Rutkowski said he filed the petition Wednesday in Huron County Family Court to try to help the boy.
"I filed the petition to get the young person into our family court system with the idea we would try to find out why the young man did what he allegedly did," Rutkowski said, adding that the boy's reasoning is still not clear to investigators. He said the investigation did not show anything startling in the boy's home life that might explain why he took the car keys about 10 a.m. as his mother slept and drove off.
Anyone think just sitting down and asking him why, not to mention sternly telling him to not take the cars keys and slow down wouldn't be sufficient?
Careful kid, this'll go on your permanent record. On the other hand, I hear NASCAR is recruiting young talent....
4 comments:
The Permanent Record thing sure gets me - this kid will have to carry this around for the rest of his life unless he hires and expensive attorney (sorry bro!) to get it expunged.
But the thing that gets me even more than that is the nanny state, government knows best attitude displayed by the prosecutor. There was nothing startling in the boys home life, so we're going to sic the government investigators on the whole family (perhaps 2 families) to find *something* so we can blame someone for what happened. Probably with criminal abuse charges attached.
Why was "mom" sleeping at 10AM? Out partying too late the night before, or just lazy?
Murphy: According to the article, she works a night shift so we'll give her a pass with a good excuse on this one.
Scott: the attorney doesn't have to be expensive s/he just has to be good!
It seems ridiculous that they can't fathom his motives - he stated quite plainly and repetitively that he wanted to go see his dad, and off he went.
True on the attorney. But it's still money that wouldn't have to be spent if the prosecutor had even half a clue.
I don't know - maybe there's some mandatory reporting law for underage kids who take their parent's car to go see the non-custodial, and if he didn't do something he would be disbarred or something.
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