CP24 – After wrapping up a round of ‘Grand Theft Auto,’ police say an 11-year-old boy stole his parents’ vehicle and took it for a joy ride on Highway 400 last night.
OPP Sgt. Kerry Schmidt said police received reports about an erratic driver in the northbound lanes of Highway 400 near Major Mackenzie Drive shortly before midnight last night.
“Drivers called it in thinking it was probably an impaired driver because the vehicle was all over the highway,” Schmidt said Sunday.
When officers finally caught up with the vehicle near King Road, Schmidt said the driver spun around to go southbound on Highway 400 and refused to stop for police.
“What happened is the vehicle was first going under the speed limit, about half the speed limit. Then (he) switches over to the other lanes, continues to travel accelerating to well over the speed limit, 120 or more kilometres per hour. The vehicle then stopped and as the officer tried to get out and talk to this driver, find out what was going on… the vehicle took off again,” he said.
Police later discovered that the driver of the vehicle was an 11-year-old boy.
“He had just been finishing playing ‘Grand Theft Auto’ at home and wanted to find out what it was like to drive a car,” Schmidt added.
“That could have been a fatality and that would have been an absolute tragedy.”
Schmidt said the boy was returned to his parents a short time later.
WOW. Way to ruin it for the rest of the kids. Parents’ number one concern about games like GTA is that their kids are going to replicate those exact acts and wreak havoc on society. That gets explained away as being ridiculous, because even kids have enough common sense not to go around stealing cars and running people over. I guess that common sense is non-exisitant in this one, which really weakens the argument for the kid contingent.
Very Canadian of them to just send the kid on his way afterwards. I got caught in Canada with an open container, weed on me, while peeing in public (not to sound like a badass, but I don’t at all mind if I sound like a badass) and the officers sent me away with just a pat on my head. This kid runs roughshod through the streets of Toronto in a stolen vehicle without a liscense? No matter. Just give the kid a stern talking-to and a finger wag and get him back to his video games.