4- year old takes mom's car for a midnight spin

[JohnnnY]

SAND LAKE, Mich. - A boy drove his motherâ??s car to a video store in the middle of the night, police said â??and heâ??s all of 4 years old. Wow.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6927845/?GT1=6190

[Duper]

yea, saw that last night on the news.


Wild

[CDN_Merlin]

Funny thing is, neither will be charged. That's insane. The mother should be charged.

[Cuda68-2]

Funny thing is, neither will be charged. That's insane. The mother should be charged.

No, I dont agree with that at all but I can see your point. Accountability in this day and age is turning into a joke. I would have to admitt I would not hide my car or house keys from a 4 year old even though he was taught to shift gears by sitting in her lap. Who would even imagine that he would give it a go on his own as small as he must be.

[DCrazy]

She wasn't "teaching" him how to drive, she was having fun with her kid by letting him pretend to drive the car. I highly doubt she had any intention of teaching the kid to become a motorist by age 10.

She's going to have to pay for the damages to those cars, I think that's enough of a lesson. My question is, how did the kid get out of the house and into the car? There's gotta be some negligence there that they can find the mother on.

[BigSlideHimself]

Read between the lines:

No father mentioned+apartment= Grade A Whitetrash.

As far as accountability, I think

"His mom didn't even know he was up." pretty much sums it up.

[Dedman]

Read between the lines:

No father mentioned+apartment= Grade A Whitetrash.

As far as accountability, I think

"His mom didn't even know he was up." pretty much sums it up.

Damn dude, why stop there? Whitetrash? There was never any mension of the kids race so let's just assume that he is black. The mom didn't know that he was up so that must mean she was on crack. So reading between the lines we have the "real" story. This was a black welfare kid who's crack addicted mom didn't know what he was up to becuase she was too stoned to care. The kid really went to the video store to rob it for drug money. There, that's better.

[WarAdvocat]

/neo...

whoah...


reading between the lines: No father mentioned, therefore it was a virgin birth and this kid is therefore the Second Coming, and is therefore blessed of GOD, thus leading logically to such talents as DWI (driving while an infant) etc.

I agree that I'm not a big fan of the lack of accountability in today's society. In this instance, really, who would anticipate that a 4 year old would not only take it into his mind to take the family car for a spin, but would further be SUCCESSFUL in doing so.

IN keeping with the ridiculous tone of the last few messages, I would like to propose a new law:

"All parents of kids too young to reach the gas pedal shall henceforth be restricted from owning vehicles with automatic transmissions unless such vehicles also possess childproof gearshifts or other such age-interlock devices"

[BigSlideHimself]

i take it back

[Lobber]

Now there's a kid with initiative. I wonder what he's gonna get himself into later in life.

[kurupt]

i dated a girl once who had a 5 year old son who got into her purse, took out the exact change for a candy bar and a gallon of milk, walked to the gas station and tried to make the purchase at 5 am. the cashier called the cops and in a few hours a lady from children services was all over it. i wonder what they'll do to this lady?

[HaAGen DaZS]

I have snuck out my house at night, spend many nights sleepless not in my bed at that - does that mean I'm neglected?


I find the fact that you're saying the mother neglects her child becuase she didnt know he was awake insane!

'Tis a fairly crazy thing for a boy to do at that age, but there really isn't any background to be judging the mother like that.

[Beowulf]

She probably tucked him in and went to bed and he was still awake and got out of the house.

[Sligar]

I'd have to say that there is sometimes too much accountability these days. People are liable to be sued at the drop of a hat. Somebody slips and falls in front of your store? sued. Say something insensitive, get fired and sued. Like the girl scouts in the news lately, left cookies late at night for their neighbor, who freaked out because it was late. Sued. I've been helping with a mountain bike trail, trying to get approval from the city, and the number one question is liability. Bleah.

[Sligar]

I'd have to say that there is sometimes too much accountability these days. People are liable to be sued at the drop of a hat. Somebody slips and falls in front of your store? sued. Say something insensitive, get fired and sued. Like the girl scouts in the news lately, left cookies late at night for their neighbor, who freaked out because it was late. Sued. I've been helping with a mountain bike trail, trying to get approval from the city, and the number one question is liability. Bleah.

[roid]

My question is, how did the kid get out of the house and into the car? There's gotta be some negligence there that they can find the mother on.

you're saying it's negligent to not LOCK YOUR FAMILY IN at night? call me a hippy, but as a child of 4 i'm pretty sure i was allowed to open the doors to my own family house anytime i wanted to if i were so inclined.
all i was taught was to close them so as not let flys in .

and as as a child of 4, i knew howto use keys (and where to find them). there'd be no stopping me from doing whatever i wanted, if i were so inclined.

chances are if the boy in this story could drive a car, he could also find his way outof his own house.

[DCrazy]

roid, I said nothing about locking a family inside the house, though here it's commonplace to do so because it's a side-effect of locking everyone else out! It's 1:30 in the morning and the doors aren't locked, and the kid manages to get out of bed, get his mother's keys, get out of the house, unlock the car (which definitely should have been locked), get in the car, put the correct key into the ignition lock, and turn it to the starter and then let go?

[roid]

you are throwing into the discussion the possibility that he didn't turn the key? like... his mother started the car for him or something?

the kid would have had to turn the key to start the car, as it has been assumed. then tell me why he can't turn a key to unlock his house door, and unlock the car door.

if we assume the kid started the car by himself, then whether or not the car/house was locked is irrelevant since he obviously knows how to use KEYS.

[DCrazy]

I'm just saying that if the kid can't reach the gas pedals, chances are he isn't tall enough to get a good angle when trying to get a key into a car or house door and then turn it.

[Krom]

It's a 4 year old not a 2 year old. An average 3 year old probably possesses the coordination reach and strength to start a car. And reaching and unlocking a door is not a problem either, a 2 year old knows how to drag a box or chair around and climb it.

[Testiculese]

Just imagine the look on the cops face when he realized someone was actually driving it, and then saw who it was!

[Phoenix Red]

I think the kid had a ton of balls to leave his house at night, drive the car etc. I know at 4 I would have been terrified of doing so, because if I was caught I would have been in some serious ★■◆●. The ONLY thing in this story that would even remotely make me suspect that the parenting wasn't stellar was the fact the kid worked up the nerve for this stunt... or else wasn't taught enough common sense.

Nothing to get the law involved with, and hopefully this incident will be a wakeup call for the mother that she might have to have a few talks and establish her authority.

[HaAGen DaZS]

Just imagine the look on the cops face when he realized someone was actually driving it, and then saw who it was!

"gotta stop telling the wifey to make 'special' doughnuts.. Woah. Damn."