Maybe it’s a sign of age, but every year it seems drivers look younger and younger, for instance:
A 4-year-old boy drove his mother’s car to a video store a quarter-mile from their apartment in Sand Lake, about 15 miles north of Grand Rapids.
Unable to reach the accelerator, the boy managed to put the car in gear and make his way to the store about 1:30 a.m. Friday, Sand Lake police said. Finding the store closed, the youngster began a slow trip home.
Weaving and with its headlights off, the car got the attention of Sgt. Jay Osga. He flipped on his lights when the car turned into the apartment complex and struck a parked car. The boy put the car in reverse and struck Osga’s cruiser.
“He knew how to go from forward to reverse,” Osga said Monday. “The mother said she taught him how to drive by letting him sit on her lap and steer.”
Osga then discovered the boy inside.
“He’s 4 years old. His mom didn’t even know he was up,” Sand Lake Police Chief Doug Heugel said. “I don’t think he even realizes what he did.”
No charges will be filed against the boy or his mother, Heugel said.
UPDATE: Our anonymous sources tell us that the boy was on his way to pick up some other pre-schoolers for a drive-by fingerpainting.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.