11-year-old’s joyride ends at fence, and in handcuffs

Kid crashes neighbor’s car, then heads off to school

The car thief ’s feet barely reached the pedals, but he found out handcuffs fit just fine on an 11-year-old’s wrists.

The small boy is charged with grand theft auto after stealing a neighbor’s Toyota and zipping along for a mile through Pompano Beach. The fun ended at a fence. No one was hurt, but the Corolla sedan suffered extensive damage, police said.

After the crash, the four-foot felon ran off to school — Charles Drew Elementary, where Broward sheriff ’s deputies slapped on the cuffs.

He is not being named by the Sun Sentinel because of his age.

The ill-fated odyssey started about 7:15 a.m. Tuesday in the 3000 block of Northwest Seventh Street, east of Florida’s Turnpike. The Sheriff’s Office describes the owner as an “elderly handicapped woman” who uses the car to get to doctor’s appointments. A neighbor knocked on the door of Sarah Jones to tell her a kid who lives down the street was stealing her car. Deputies don’t know how he got the keys.

The boy drove to an alley near the 2500 block of Northwest 13th Street before crashing. He left the keys in the car and took off for school.

David Miller, 34, who lives two houses down from where the boy crashed, was on his morning walk when he saw

deputies and a helicopter.

“I was told a kid had hit the fence,” Miller said. “I’m like, Wow. Where’s a 10-year-old boy got to go that he got a car?”

The boy was taken to a Juvenile Assessment Center, where he was detained.

He will be given an evaluation of any risk to the public, mental health or substance abuse disorders, and referral to court and community services, according to the Sheriff’s Office.

ADAM SACASA/STAFF The 11-year-old boy made it about a mile from the house where he took the car. He was arrested at his elementary school.