Eight other children were seated inside the car, seven crammed in the backseat (Representational Image)
Police officers in New Zealand were stunned to find a 13-year-old behind the wheel of a stolen Suzuki Swift on Wednesday. Things quickly escalated when they saw eight other children inside the vehicle as well.
Cops in Paraparaumu, a town in the North Island of New Zealand, got a call about a stolen Suzuki Swift. According to the
New Zealand Herald, the caller, reported her car stolen from her home and alleged that three of her family members and one of their friends were responsible.
An hour later, the small car was spotted by cops.
"Police turned around to stop the vehicle, however the driver increased its speed and turned down a side street," Acting Sergeant Nathan Dickey told the newspaper. "The vehicle then pulled over to the side of the road."
Police spotted eight other children - who ranged in age from 10 to 16 years old - seated inside the car. Shockingly, seven of them were crammed in the backseat of the hatchback.
According to Mr Dickey, the children belonged to seven different families and their parents did not even have a clue that they were missing - until the cops brought them back in the middle of the night.
"Police were disappointed by the poor decisions of not only the driver of this stolen vehicle, but all occupants for putting their lives and other road users at risk in an extremely dangerous situation,"
Newshub quoted the Wellington District Police as saying.
The children got a stern telling off by the police officers but it's unclear whether there will be any charges pressed against them.
This is hardly the first time a child has been caught behind the wheels.
Last year,
an eight-year-old drove to McDonald's with his four-year-old sister in the United States. His parents were fast asleep the entire time. The hungry young kid later told police officers he learnt to drive after looking up videos on YouTube.
And in an equally bizarre incident,
a 12-year-old managed to drive 1,300 kilometres across Australia before the cops caught up with him and ended his epic road trip.
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