A nine-year-old in Oroville took the liberty of grabbing his mom’s car keys and driving her car to school, but things ended poorly for the youngster when he ended up in a chase with a Highway Patrol car, which he then rammed into.
NBC Bay Area has the news of a car that seemed stolen in the Butte County township of Oroville on Wednesday morning, a car which sped off when California Highway Patrol officers tried to pull it over. That car eventually stopped after the chase, but then rear-ended the Highway Patrol vehicle.
Though as NBC Bay Area reports, the driver of the car was a nine-year-old boy who said he was just trying to get to elementary school.
“Another Episode of You Can't Make This Up,” the Oroville division of the California Highway Patrol (CHP) said in a Wednesday evening Facebook post. “This morning at around 9:20 AM, a scene straight out of a movie unfolded at the intersection of Grand Ave. and 4th St. An officer from the CHP - Oroville Office encountered a gray Volkswagen sedan stopped oddly in the middle of the intersection. When instructed to move, the vehicle unexpectedly sped off, leading to a short and erratic chase that ended in a dirt parking lot just east of Plumas Avenue Elementary School.”
“The driver was a 9-year-old child on a mission to drive himself to school in his mother’s car,” the post added.
Oddly, the young man almost made it there, as the CHP did say that the chase “ended in a dirt parking lot just east of Plumas Avenue Elementary School.” The ramming of the CHP cruiser was likely unintentional, as Sacramento's KOVR notes that the youngster is 3-foot-11, and “admitted he could barely reach the pedals to the car and couldn't see clearly over the steering wheel.”
KOVR also spoke with the kid’s grandmother, who said the family was in "pure panic," when the boy disappeared from the home, and his mother called 911 "hysterically." The family feared for a "worst case scenario" where the boy may have been "taken," though in reality, he just decided to try and drive himself to school.
Fortunately, no one was injured in the incident. The CHP added, “Let's use this unusual event as a catalyst for conversations about safety, responsibility, and the importance of adhering to our community's driving laws.”
Related: 13-Year-Old Girl's Early Morning Joyride Ends in Crash in San Francisco [SFist]
Image: CHP - Oroville via Facebook
