Michael Pritchard saw two things: a running bus with its door open, and a small child riding by on his bike. What happened next might sound like a scene ripped right out of a family comedy.”I looked in my mirror and I saw a little head in the driver’s seat of the bus,” said Pritchard. Yes, a 9 year old boy from Canada stole a bus and then took it out for a joyride while still in his pajamas — because he could.
“He had an opportunity to take it,” said police spokesman Sgt. Ryan Smith said. “And he did.”
The littlest bus thief, who had to stand to operate the vehicle because his legs were too short to reach the pedals, joyrode the bus for about three blocks, turning right at least twice.
“My wife looked out her window and saw a city bus and said, ‘There’s a boy driving that bus,'” said witness Steve Pasqualotto.
As one would expect, the incident did not end quite peacefully. The boy finished his joyride only after he hit another city bus and totaled a pick up truck. No one was injured.
“I had to pry open the bus doors,” said Pritchard, who immediately followed the tiny bus-jacker after seeing the potential danger of the situation. “I told him to get out of the bus. He got out of the bus and I grabbed him because I didn’t want him to take off.”According to Sgt. Smith, the child won’t be charged with anything, because he can’t be. The grade school thief is too young to be arrested under city law. Instead, he was sent home to his family.