Brother, 7, drives younger sister nine miles in hunt for a McDonald’s
A seven-year-old boy drove his mother’s SUV with his five-year-old sister inside on a mission to eat at McDonald’s.
Cops started a pursuit of the boy after responding to a call for a reckless driver, but backed off after learning how young he was and fearing putting the public at risk, according to the Ogden Police Department.
The boy eventually hit a parking strip in Ogden, Utah, and cops rushed to the scene and found him and his sister uninjured.
His mom, Whitney Bush, said she received a knock on the door and found out that her vehicle was missing – along with two of her four children.
‘I absolutely had my heart in my stomach… I had no idea what was going on, I was being told different stories of what was happening,’ Bush told ABC4.
The terrified mother said she went to the crash scene and was told by cops to go somewhere else.
‘They had already had – I guess – EMS come out and check on my kids and transferred them over to the police station,’ she said.
Bush said that her son was planning to go to McDonald’s and that he had cash prepared and passed a few of the fast food chain’s locations while driving nine miles from their home in Clearfield.
She admitted that she was impressed her son got that far and was wearing a seatbelt.
‘I’m not proud of him by any means,’ she clarified.
‘He’s in a world of trouble, he’s probably grounded for the rest of his life.’
Bush added that her son has displayed some behavioral problems but had never acted to that extreme before.
‘I don’t think anybody wakes up in the morning or goes through their day thinking their 7-year-old is going to play Grand Theft Auto with their vehicle,’ she said.
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She said she had asked the Department of Children and Family Services, law enforcement and hospitals for help, but that it did not go anywhere.
The boy, whose identity was not released, will not face charges due to his age. Bush said she will have him do community service for neighbors.
He crashed near 40th Street on April 27.
Police said that ‘given the totality of circumstances, including the suspected age of the driver and the heightened risk to public safety, officers deactivated their emergency equipment and chose not to pursue’, according to ABC4.
Ogden is about 35 miles north of Salt Lake City.
It happened a year after a nine-year-old California boy took his mother’s car and drove toward his school, before crashing into a police vehicle.
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