A four-year-old boy borrowed his mother’s car overnight to go rent a video game, police in Sandlake, Michigan, said on Monday.
At about 1.30am local time on Friday, a patrol officer reported seeing a car with its lights off moving at a snail’s pace, zigzagging between two lanes on a highway, said police chief Doug Heugel.
Thinking at first that the driver was drunk, the officer turned on his flashing lights, only then realising he could not see anyone behind the steering wheel.
He then thought that the car had possibly taken off by itself from a nearby gasoline station, without anyone at the controls.
With the officer still in pursuit, the car swerved sharply into a residential parking lot and hit another car. It then went into reverse, and crashed into the police cruiser.
What the officer found when he jumped out and looked was a four-year-old boy.
“He decided he wanted to get a video game. So he got dressed, took the keys, left the house, got in the car, put it in reverse and backed up, left the apartment complex and drove down the road a quarter of a mile [400m],” said Heugel.
“He said he stopped at the video store but … the door was locked and the lights were out. He got back in the car and headed back home, and that’s when the officer saw him.”
The officer said that to drive, the boy slid down and push the car’s accelerator, and then stood up to look out and see where he was going.
His mother was asleep the whole time, Heugel added. — AFP