14-Year-Old Boy Boards Flight Using Mom's Name

CANBY, Ore. October 6, 2009 (AP) -- A 14-year-old Canby boy was able to slipthrough security at Portland International Airport and board aflight to Chicago using his mother's name and credit card.

Transportation Security Administration spokesman Dwayne Bairdsaid that the boy - who is 6-foot-2 and weighs about 200 pounds -was asked by a TSA screener if his name was "Virginia," the firstname of the passenger listed on the ticket. The boy said yes, wasallowed through security and made the flight.

Baird says part of the problem is that minors are not requiredto show identification to pass through security, although they musthave a boarding pass and are screened like all other passengers.

Also, children 11 and older are not required to have an adultescort to the gate, and "there is no government-issued ID for a14-year-old," Baird told The Oregonian.

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Virginia Davis said Saturday's flight was the second time in aweek that her son has run away. She said the boy, who hasAsperger's syndrome, went missing last Wednesday after she droppedhim off at a movie in Oregon City.

When he failed to show up afterward, Davis called police. Shesaid her son apparently spent the night in Clackamette Park inOregon City before he recharged his cell phone at a restaurant andcalled her.

Virginia Davis said she believes both of her son'sdisappearances were manipulated by someone else, noting that he hasexchanged an estimated 10,000 text messages with someone purportingto be a Chicago girl.

"But this could be an adult man, for all I know," she said.

She said she is trying to get more help for he son, who has poorsocial skills because of his Asperger's.

"He got on that plane without a penny in his pocket, with nocoat and his old shoes with holes in them," Davis said. "Hisscript of the world is based only on what happens to him in hislife. If it happened to somebody else, it doesn't mean anything tohim."