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Maybe the mother was trying to make the kid where this guy came from . . . |
Posted on 01/17/2007 11:09:39 AM PST by rawhide
LAKEWOOD, Wash. — A 9-year-old boy with a history of stealing cars and running away sneaked onto a plane bound for Texas, getting caught after flubbing an airport connection, officials said.
Semaj Booker apparently found a Southwest Airlines boarding card and made it through airport security Tuesday, hopping two separate flights but landing in San Antonio, Texas — short of his Dallas destination, police said.
"The only thing I have to offer on that is that were looking into it," Southwest spokeswoman Beth Harbin said.
The fourth-grader remained Wednesday in juvenile custody in San Antonio. He had been trying to get to his grandfather in Dallas, where he used to live.
The boy was unhappy after his family moved to Lakewood, outside Tacoma. His odyssey began Sunday when he stole a car that was left running outside a neighbor's house, only to be spotted by police near the interchange of Interstate 5 and State Route 512.
Police pursued Semaj at speeds up to 90 mph until he took an exit and the engine blew, after which the car went over a curb and coasted into a tree. He refused to come out of the car, so officers broke a window to unlock a door and immediately recognized him as a frequent runaway and car thief, Lakewood police Lt. David B. Guttu said.
Last month he also crashed a stolen car before being caught by police in Tacoma, and more recently he was caught in Seattle in a stolen car that had run out of gas, said his mother, Sakinah Booker.
She believes he learned to drive from playing video games on a PlayStation.
Booker said she had hoped to soon move her four sons back to Dallas, but Semaj grew tired of waiting.
Semaj was "incredibly motivated to get to Texas," Guttu said. "He doesn't want to live in Washington state."
Booker said her son dislikes the neighborhood where the family lives and is afraid of a sex offender who lives nearby.
"He does not like it here at all," she said.
Missing boy returns home
STACEY MULICK; The News Tribune
Published: January 3rd, 2007 07:34 AM
A 9-year-old Lakewood boy who’d been missing since Monday night returned home early Wednesday, Lakewood police reported. Semaj Tremone Booker, who has a recent history of running away from home, was safe and unharmed after he came home at 3 a.m., Lt. Dave Guttu said. The boy told officers he’d made a trip to Tacoma’s East Side and started to walk home Tuesday night.
Booker was last seen in the area of 115th and Bridgeport Way in Lakewood about 5 p.m. Monday. His mother told police he’d never been gone overnight.
source: http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/updates/story/6307749p-5500139c.html
Ahhh today's yoots......
Speaks volumes about the abilities of TSA. Get rid of TSA!
Ping
Semaj Tremone ping!
Wanna bet Semaj's mamma's baby daddy is named James?
GTT
Didn't I see where Aviation Security Alert is "HIGH"?
LOL......we're screwed if a 4th grader can just hop a flight without being detected.
We can look past the illegalities, I think, and give him "creativity" points instead!
Semaj is no stranger to car theft, Guttu said. In December, Tacoma police said they caught him after he crashed a stolen car. More recently, he took a car, drove to Seattle, then was taken into custody after he ran out of gas, said Sakinah Booker.
She believes he learned how to drive from playing video games on a PlayStation.
“He’s basically out of a booster seat,” Guttu said, adding that a police report listed Semaj as 4 feet 9 inches tall and all of 80 pounds.
Earlier, Sakinah Booker told police that she needed help with her son, and when they found him, they should take him to Remann Hall juvenile jail in Tacoma.
“I told (the officer), don’t bring him back home. … It’s too much,” she said.
After taking him to be checked for injuries at Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital and Health Center in Tacoma, Semaj was brought to Remann Hall, Guttu said. Officials declined to detain him because he didn’t score high enough on the facility’s risk assessment test and because of his age, said Shelly Maluo, juvenile court administrator.
“Putting a 9-year-old in our facility with our population is not a good thing,” she said.
Police then took him to a Child Protective Services facility, where he was turned away again because of his age, Guttu said.
About 11 p.m. Sunday night, Sakinah Booker took her son back. By 6 a.m. Monday, she had reported him missing again, she said. Police listed him as missing, and received a call Tuesday from a juvenile facility in San Antonio saying, “We’ve got your runaway,” Guttu said.
Officials took Semaj into custody Tuesday as he stepped off the flight from Phoenix, but Guttu said he’s not sure how they figured out what was going on. A call to San Antonio police Tuesday was not returned.
After giving officials a false name – a tactic his mother said he used on police in the Seattle and Tacoma car incidents – Semaj eventually told them his real name, Guttu said.
Fred Wist, Pierce County deputy prosecutor in charge of the juvenile unit, said he was reviewing the police reports Tuesday afternoon from the police pursuit. “It is very seldom that we see kids this young,” he said.
Sakinah Booker said she hadn’t spoken with her son since he’d reached Texas, but that she’d been told he ended up in San Antonio instead of Dallas because he boarded the wrong plane in Phoenix. She said she had hoped to soon move her four sons back to Dallas, but Semaj grew tired of waiting. She’d also said she considered sending him to live with her sister in Illinois.
When asked how he might have gotten a seat on two flights, she said, “Your guess is as good as mine. I think they just let him on.”
http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/story/6326838p-5515246c.html
If only this boys creativity and drive could be harnessed for good.....
Didn't score high enough? He stole two cars and flew by himself from Washington to Texas. That doesn't score high enough? Does he have to shoot a cop to get reeled in?
I see a movie deal in the making.
That was my first thought, too. I sure hope he makes it.
The mom sounds like a real winner, maybe he's just desperate to get away from her.
I thought young children
only did illegal things
if predatory
bad adults brain wash
the little tykes. That's what some
Freepers seem to think . . .
Nice catch!
I tried to figure out what nationality had the name "Semaj" in its vocabulary but didn't recognize the obvious.
So after the cops broke the window, recognized him as a frequent runaway, did they just let him walk?
How did he get to the airport and hop a plane to Texas?
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Maybe the mother was trying to make the kid where this guy came from . . . |
See post #10
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