Kids just want to have fun but rarely does it include a Range Rover.
A 12-year old boy and his 7-year-old cousin took the family car on a joy ride from Queens to Delaware on Monday. The children weren’t injured on the 5-hour ride and once in custody, the 7-year-old said her cousin was actually a good driver, per New York CBS Local.
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Outside of the NYPD’s 106th precinct the little girl said: “Yeah, it was good. I wish I was driving.”
“He drove good?” asked an officer.
“Yeah,” she answered.
“You had a good time?” said the officer.
“Yeah,” she replied.
The boy drove over 100 miles from his home on115th Street in South Ozone Park to nearly the Delaware border possibly in hopes of completing a social media challenge that involves riding until you run out of gas.
A surveillance video showed the kids leaving around 9 a.m. and an E-ZPass tracked them around 11 a.m. State troopers caught up with the kids and turned on the sirens to alert them, but the boy sped up.
They were finally apprehended around 2:15 p.m. when the boy tried to use his father’s credit card to buy cookies. The kids were released to their family and no one was charged after the five hour joyride.
A neighbor, Justin Kellman said, “First of all, that’s very brave to get behind a car at 12. Not sure what’s going on, maybe some family issues, I don’t know what it is. If it’s a joyride that’s not safe at all.”
The boy’s uncle, Joe Gangaram said, “The kids are OK. They’re OK. I thank the precinct for doing a good job. Everybody’s fine.”
Another neighbor Lawrence Keyser says the boy’s behavior was normal.
“Everyone gets a temptation at that age to do something crazy. You just hope as a parent they don’t hurt themselves or anyone else.”
It is still unclear how the tween learned how to drive.
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