Sure, it's entirely possible this 9-year-old soccer-mom-in-training experienced delusions of grandeur while commanding the big rig through the midst of the less-fortunate masses.
Posted on 08/27/2003 6:01:35 AM PDT by aculeus
A 9-year-old girl and a 4-year-old boy, left alone yesterday in the girl's home in Little Ferry, N.J., climbed into the family sport utility vehicle and drove it almost a mile to Hackensack, where it crashed into four parked cars in a supermarket parking lot and struck a pedestrian.
Shaken but uninjured after a passer-by stopped their vehicle, the two children were immediately turned over to the State Division of Youth and Family Services, the police said. The pedestrian, an 84-year-old man whom the police would not identify, was taken to Hackensack University Medical Center. The police said he had suffered bruises and scratches that were not life-threatening and was in stable condition late yesterday.
The boy's mother, Rose Graham, showed up at police headquarters to claim him, but the mother of the girl, who had been behind the wheel, had not yet been located, Hackensack Police Chief Charles Zisa said yesterday afternoon. He identified her as Inez Cunningham, 37.
"We have canvassed the places where we felt we could find her," he said. "While there is nothing to indicate that she has taken off, let's just say we are not getting information as quickly as we would like from others involved."
Joe Delmar, a spokesman for the State Division of Youth and Family Services, said the agency had no record of current or past involvement with the girl's family.
"If the parents cannot be located, we will take protective custody of them tonight," Mr. Delmar said.
The incident began about 10:30 a.m. when, the police say, the girl got the keys to the family's 2002 Mitsubishi Montero. Some stunned neighbors watched as the children made the turns out of the parking lot of the town-home complex near the border of Little Ferry and Hackensack, said Deputy Chief Ed Koeser. The neighbors apparently did nothing to stop them.
The children drove onto busy South River Street past fenced trucking and warehouse yards, he said. They continued north under the I-80 overpass, traveling about three-quarters of a mile on the four-lane street, a road commonly used by 18-wheelers. At what was the first possible right turn, the girl maneuvered the S.U.V. into the crowded parking lot of a shopping center that has a ShopRite supermarket and a dozen other stores.
That was when Evalyn Gleyzer, 22, the manager of the Mobile Phone Center in the shopping center, heard people yelling as a man ran into the store and asked her to call the police.
"He said that a car was driving around hitting other cars in the lot," she said. She added that she called the police and then ran outside, where she saw an S.U.V. driving around. "I couldn't see anyone behind the wheel. Then the same man who told us to call the police jumped onto the side of the moving vehicle and helped stop it."
Chief Zisa said the unidentified passer-by had reached in and turned off the ignition, stopping the S.U.V. He said that when officers arrived, the girl was "visibly shaking and crying." The boy, dressed only in a T-shirt and underpants, appeared unfazed.
Chief Zisa said that the police were investigating why the children had been left alone and that charges had not yet been filed.
Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company
Egads! A citizen forgot and called this thing a "car".
The 9 year old never did take the driver training course. His father thought he didn't need them.
Obviously, these SUV manufacturers are targeting their advertising at kids!
I can see the boy now- 'What?'
Sure, it's entirely possible this 9-year-old soccer-mom-in-training experienced delusions of grandeur while commanding the big rig through the midst of the less-fortunate masses.
Right. There has to be a crime here somewhere. If there is no crime, let's create one. What we need is The Child-Protection Anti-SUV-Hijacking Patriot Act of 2004 (currently being introduced to Congress by Sen. McCain and some liberal Rep. from Michigan).
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