9-Year-Old Suspect and His Buddy, 4, Steal Another Car

They boys were spotted by a fellow driver who called 911.

ByABC News
July 16, 2014, 10:19 AM

— -- Police in Wisconsin are investigating a 9-year-old boy and his 4-year-old relative whom authorities say stole a car and went for a joy ride for the second time in four weeks.

The two boys, whose names were not released, were caught Sunday after a driver in Farmington, Wisconsin, saw the 9-year-old behind the wheel and called 911.

“Hi, I just passed a car that looked like about a ten-year-old was driving it,” the male caller tells the 911 operator. “It looked like they were looking through the steering wheel.

“They were barely tall enough to see it. It looked like two kids were in the vehicle,” he says on the call. “I looked over and was like, ‘What the hell,’ and they were kind of driving a little sporadically.”

The 9-year-old driver had apparently stolen his stepfather’s car and taken off, with his 4-year-old relative in the passenger seat.

The child drove the car into a ditch before police could stop the vehicle. No one was injured in the crash, according to authorities.

After identifying the two boys, police realized they were the same pair who were stopped June 14 by a teen driver who saw them driving on a local highway at speeds up to 85 mph.

In that incident, police say, the boys rode their bikes to a local boat store and then stole the car of a shop employee who had left his keys inside the car.

The boys were not charged in that incident and police say they are now investigating the most recent case as possible child neglect, according to ABC affiliate WISN-TV in Milwaukee.

Kaiden Duck, the teen driver who stopped the boys on their first joy ride, told WISN he can’t believe it happened again.

"I can't believe how they got another vehicle and [got] back on the road and [were] trying to do it again after they almost got hurt the first time," Duck said.