UFA (Bashkotorstan), November 29 (RIA Novosti) – An 11-year-old boy in Russia’s republic of Bashkortostan “borrowed” his mother’s car and led local traffic cops on a 50-kilometer (30-mile) race before hitting a roadside fence.
A police spokesman told RIA Novosti that traffic patrolmen spotted the Lada sedan speeding and moving erratically on a street in the town of Salavat early on Friday.
The cops assumed a drunk driver was at the wheel and attempted to stop the vehicle, only to see the car speeding up.
Several patrol cars joined the pursuit at speeds of up to 120 kilometers (75 miles) per hour that took them to a neighboring town around 50 kilometers away.
During the chase, the Lada smashed through a railroad crossing barrier in front of an oncoming train and continued moving at high speed until it slammed into a fence on the side of a street.
Police officers were taken by surprise when they found an 11-year-old boy, unharmed, at the wheel of the severely damaged car.
The boy’s mother was even more surprised when she received a call from police about the incident.
She insisted to police that her son was soundly asleep, until she checked his room and found it empty.
The boy confessed during questioning that he took the car keys without permission, waited until his mom went to bed and quietly left the house to take her car for a ride.
The mother later told police that her son was a “difficult” child who ran away from home on several occasions. She taught him how to drive in an attempt “to keep him out of trouble,” she said.
