Boy In Classic Car Doesn’t Get Far

CARPENTERSVILLE, IL – A 12-year-old boy stole a classic car and led police on a brief chase earlier this week before he crashed into a telephone pole and fled on foot, police said. The boy’s “joyride” resulted in more than $10,000 in damages to Don Walter’s 1957 Ford Fairlane convertible.

The boy, whose name was not released because of his age, was taken by ambulance to a local hospital as a precaution for minor injuries that he suffered in the accident, according to the report in the Northwest Herald newspaper.

According to the report, Gloria Walters told police she was returning home when she saw her husband’s Fairlane backing out of her driveway. However, she immediately became concerned that something was wrong since she had just spoken with her husband, who was at work. Her suspicions were confirmed when a boy drove past her with his head barely visible above the steering wheel.

“I’m screaming at him, ‘Hey, stop!’ ” she told the newspaper. “But of course not. He just kept on going.”

Walters called 911 and police soon spotted the 18-foot-long, red-and-black convertible several blocks away.

“That’s not a real hard car to find,” Carpentersville police Cmdr. Michael Kilbourne said.

According to local police reports, officers pursued the boy for about three blocks before he hit a telephone pole head-on.

A muddy footprint colored the garage’s side door, where the boy apparently kicked his way into the garage. Walters told the newspaper that he usually left the keys in the car in the locked garage, but after the accident he placed the keys inside the house.

“It’s a classic,” Gloria Walters said. “If the kid wanted a ride, my husband would have been more than happy to give him a ride.”