Baby driver: Utah police stop five-year-old on way to California in parents' car

Extract from The Guardian

Utah

Boy, 5, told officers he was driving to California to buy Lamborghini sports car – with $3 in his pocket

Jessica Glenza in New York

@JessicaGlenza

Wed 6 May 2020 02.05 AEST Last modified on Wed 6 May 2020 02.31 AEST

  

Utah law enforcement officers thought they were stopping an impaired driver. They weren’t. Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo 

Utah state troopers pulled over a five-year-old boy driving his parents’ car down the highway. The precocious youngster told the officers he was on his way to California to buy himself a Lamborghini – with $3 in his pocket.

Troopers in Ogden, outside Salt Lake City, initially thought the car was being driven by an impaired driver. But when they found the boy driving, he told police he left home after an argument, in which his mother refused to buy him the luxury sports car.

“He decided he’d take the car and go to California to buy one himself,” police said on Twitter. “He might have been short on the purchase amount, as he only had $3 in his wallet.”

The young lad could barely see over the steering wheel. The authorities have not named the family and the police tweeted a picture of him in the driver’s seat, but with his face blocked out.

Local station KSL News Radio reported the boy managed to drive about three miles before he was pulled over just after 11am local time, Monday morning. The boy and his family are being interviewed by police. law enforcement officers thought they were stopping an impaired driver. They weren’t.