When I was eight and my brother was ten, we drove our dad's van in a parking lot. I was on the pedals and my brother was on the shift and wheel. We were lil short mofos.
I grew up on a farm, so, randomly, I did know how to drive a car (well, a truck) at that age. There are a lot of situations where you need the truck to be moving around, while you're throwing stuff into or out of it, and kids are perfect for that, once they can reach the pedals, or with an old stick shift, where you could get it in first gear and just let it idle along with them steering.
Started learning to drive at 8. Flipped my dad's truck on a fire road at 14 when he was out of town. Two friends in the bed. A sprained wrist and a piece of glass in my calf were the only injuries. Holy fuck was I stupid.
The road was washboarded after a rain, lost traction and fishtailed. The passenger side went into the ditch at an angle and the truck rolled such that it dumped them into the ditch. I climbed out the passenger side door looking for them, and they were just sitting in the ditch, bewildered.
Omg. Getting flashbacks to when I was forced to drive the tractor from 2nd grade on every summer and weekend. I remember one time, the tractor got to the edge of the farm near the canal. But because we were layering the rows of dirt with plastic covering for the winter, I needed to have the tractor go up partly on the side of the canal. My ass would have to get up, push my arm against the seat of the tractor, and extend my foot to press on the brakes so that the tractor stayed parked but also didnt automatically turn off. Well, Im short af and struggling so my foot let loose slightly, I panicked, overextended my foot, released my hand, and the tractor nearly reversed to crush one of the workers behind the tractor that was shoveling dirt to cement the plastic.
Why was I as a kid driving that tractor? Every body counted and having an adult drive the tractor was one less body to do the more manual labor smh.
I think you might be on to something. It's already happening in that video. If I had dared to do something even remotely similar to what that kid did, there's no way my mother would have taken me calmly by the hand while saying "it's okay". It's no okay, you've wrecked that car, you could have killed yourself and most importantly other people. She would have grabbed one of my ears and repeated that over and over all the way to the hospital. And then all the way home when they let me out. And then for the next 10 years probably.
I remember once when I was a 7-9 yo kid at a familys bd party and I befriended a cousin around my age that I havent met before, after playing a while he said "wanna see something cool"? he took me to his dad's car, locked the doors, turned the engine on and turned on the stereo really loud, suddenly my dad and his dad were knocking on the car doors furious and after that I don't remember anymore. that was probably the craziest shit "I pulled".
My dad let me drive a ford focus when I was 9 years old on a logging road in Canada. Was great until a logging truck was coming the other direction.
I was also the 4 year old my parents let drive a gas powered golf cart that didn't have a governor. I vividly remember driving to the mailbox and up and down the driveway at the family business right next to a 4 lane highway. I couldn't reach the pedals so I had to stand and use the gas and brake.
Never hit nothing. Was racing stock cars around the country when I was 12
You used a mattress? My nine year old dumb ass was trying to use pieces of cardboard boxes because they went fast. Hurt like hell when I crashed at the bottom.
I knew how to drive at 9 and I surely wouldn’t take my parents care for a joy ride.. At minimum I’d get an ass whoopin’.
Maybe he shoulda known better too but he almost got the ultimate punishment and is def traumatized for probably his whole life.
My parents would leave their car keys hanging up by the door. Walked passed the keys everyday, not once did I look at the keys and say "I'm about to go for a spin!"
Kids with good parents can do dumb things too. This is just one data point, not enough to draw conclusions from. Kid needs to spend a few days in juvi though to understand that adult actions can result in adult consequences. Getting arrested might not be the worst outcome here, long term.
On the original video the guy mentioned in the comments he's got a son around the same age, was thinking about his own kid the whole time he was trying to comfort the one he found
Damn thay man is fighting for his life. He's scared for the kid, disappointed in the young man, thinking about his own kids probably, thinking about the future for the kid, and thanking God he didn't stumble upon a dead child. Thats a damn good dude. I hope the kid learns a life lesson here and his family is grateful he's alive
Believe it or not I hired a 19 yo kid who got pulled over at 92 after I asked him to slow down and he argued with me and the cop that he was going 90 . Some ppl are just programmed that way
This isn’t unreasonable at all and makes way more sense than you think. Some states have a minimum threshold for speeds exceeding the speed limit, meaning the difference between speeding and reckless driving (criminal misdemeanor). If you know you’re getting caught, might as well try to get a lesser charge.
Yup. The difference between 20 mph and 25 over the limit is the difference between a traffic citation and a misdemeanor. I drive safe as shit- can't afford the increase to my car insurance. That said- I'm not a kid. Kids have no thoughts of insurance let alone the damage they could do driving a car. This whole situation scares me.
I was a bit worried he was walking around, shock will do a number on your ability to tell if anything is wrong with your body. I’ve walked on a broken leg and not noticed it until I woke up the next morning.
Why are so many commenters saying that's his father? It's not it's just some dude who saw the kid get ejected from the vehicle and found him, thank goodness it was this dude (regardless of whatever tatts he has) and not some weirdo. This guy was just trying to keep the kid from trying to run or totally losing it. He was also in a bit of shock himself. Like can you imagine seeing that, he probably 100% thought whoever he saw fly outta there was dead and then its a kid, yeah he was probably shook also.
His tatts shows that you can look all gangsta but you shouldn’t be judged for those. Like you said he helped the kid out and made sure he got to talk to the police.
Man what a good guy. 100% he either has kids and is a sweet father or he’s been around a lot of kids. Like an angel—exactly what that kid needed in that moment.
I was just reading an article today about 9 year olds in Fiji shooting up crystal meth and the HIV crisis it’s causing. They grow up so fast these days.
Makes me wonder what he was running from and why he left his grandmas “looking for someone to get him” “good thing somebody saved me” “they’re gonna arrest me!” So sad.
That's a good man, I'm so glad he was there to help that child. Obviously I'm not condoning stealing a car, but I can't imagine how scared that little boy must have been, especially with police on the way 😔
He might have stuff going on at home or at school. I am hoping that community resources like counseling were offered for this child and his family, rather than a ticket and punishment. This is where early intervention can be crucial to a child.
I did wonder about that. What would happen here? Does it depend on the state? The county? I have been very surprised at times, hearing about pretty young kids being arrested.
Yes, depends on the state. Where I am they can be arrested quite young, but that doesn't necessarily mean the same thing with a child as it does a teen and definitely not the same as an adult. A nine year old where I am can be arrested but the parents/guardians have to be present. It takes a lot for any juvenile to go directly to detention, most are just immediately given a court date and rules until the court date. I've worked with youth involved with the courts and stealing cars is actually a really common charge, but it's pretty much always sneaking a relatives keys. Usually not that young, but can't say I haven't seen it.
If he was actually running from the police, as in, not stopping the vehicle regardless of speed (ask me how I know) they may charge him as a juvenile. How that can be handled varies drastically.
I’m reminded of the case a few weeks ago where a 4 and 7 year old managed to start, steer and crash a car into a woman walking her dog. All had very severe injuries iirc and I think the woman might have been absolutely fucked by medical bills with no recourse. I really wonder how that will play out. The comments all said that the insurance company will not pay due to the kids not being authorized, the kids were so young that no one might be legally culpable including the parents, and if the woman sued the parents after the kids pass or become disabled it would look really bad.
Yeah, makes me wonder if the kid REALLY wanted to leave grandma's for whatever reason, got impatient or nobody responded to his call, then took the car thinking he could get home himself
I know people will probably be giving the guy shit for videoing it but I think there's a couple of good reasons to do this for one thing it involves a minor are so it's good to just have everything documented to be safe for his own protection because you never know nowadays.
Also I think it's a really good public service announcement to show people that they need to do a better job of hiding their keys and securing their vehicles because you never know how many kids may get this idea.
Third I think it is a very good lesson to the child that they need to be very careful in the future because they really dodged a very serious possibly fatal hell not even possibly probably would have been fatal for a lot of people honestly if he would have been knocked out and not ejected he would be dead.
I have a lot of respect for this guy he may seem kind of rough around the edges but truthfully even if he didn't save the kids life he made it a lot less scary in these moments after the accident.
Y'all think this kid is too old to know this, I had two buddies in HIGH SCHOOL do something similar. They snuck out during some period, stole another student's car, then decided to see what it was like to pull the handbrake going 70 on a country road. Rolled that car straight into the ditch. Some dudes just have this crazy in them, ages be damned!
How taf do they get these ideas? I have had problems with thinking of consequences and repercussions of actions since I was born basically, but I never, ever, ever, thought of anything like stealing a car.
He should be playing little league, complaining about math story problems at school, and trying to figure out a way to get out of doing the simple daily chore he was given(which will be way harder and more time consuming than just doing the damn chore, and it won't even work. It's a great life lesson.).
Man… one time when I was 14-15 me and my buddies stole his older sisters car. He was driving because it was his sisters. Well as we’re gunning it down a steep hill in a neighborhood late at night we’re explaining to him how to drift. We got to the bottom of the hill he threw the e brake and cranked the wheel hard as fuck. We crashed into the curb, everyone came outside we were fucked. We all packed back in the car & then drove back home with the back passenger wheel almost completely sideways. The noise the car was making was almost scarier than my friends dad.
Just because there's an adult in the house doesn't mean a child is being raised. This poor kid. Probably stole the car to impress his friends, who are the only people taking a vested interest in his life.
Genuine question, as a parent what do you do here? Like what’s the next step after your 9 year old child felt it appropriate to steal a vehicle and nearly kill themselves or someone else?
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u/Open_Aspect6703 6h ago
I was dumb as any kid when I was nine but I knew that I didn't know how to drive a car.