UHP Trooper Stops 5-Year-Old Driving Family Car Near I-15
May 4, 2020, 1:53 PM | Updated: May 5, 2020, 2:17 pm
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah — A Utah Highway Patrol trooper stopped what he thought was an impaired driver traveling near I-15, but it turned out to be a 5-year-old boy.
The incident occurred near I-15 in Salt Lake City Monday afternoon.
“I could see a car that was weaving badly,” said UHP Trooper Rick Morgan. “It seemed a little worse than a normal, impaired driver.”
When Trooper Morgan signaled for the call to pull over in Ogden though, he discovered a 5-year-old boy behind the wheel.
Nobody was more surprised today than @UTHighwayPatrol when a trooper pulled over what he believed was an impaired driver on I-15 and instead found a 5-YEAR-OLD BOY behind the wheel!
Unreal story. Working on it for @KSL5TV #KSLTV #Utah pic.twitter.com/SyL0kJHG7g
— Andrew Adams (@AndrewAdamsKSL) May 4, 2020
“I was not expecting to find what I found,” Morgan said. “He was 5 years old.”
Morgan said no class teaches troopers to watch for something like that on the roads.
“Where did you learn how to drive a car?” Morgan asked the boy.
The boy managed to drive from his home on 17th Street and Lincoln Avenue to the 25th Street I-15 offramp.
“He told me initially that he was going to his sister’s house,” Morgan said.
“His story is that he left his home after an argument with his Mom, in which she told him she would not buy him a Lamborghini,” according to UHP. “He decided he’d take the car and go to California to buy one himself.”
But it appears the boy didn’t have much in his wallet.
“He might have been short on the purchase amount,” the UHP tweet concludes, “as he only had $3 in his wallet.”
His story is that he left home after an argument with Mom, in which she told him she would not buy him a Lamborghini. He decided he'd take the car and go to California to buy one himself. He might have been short on the purchase amount, as he only had $3 dollars in his wallet.
— Utah Highway Patrol (@UTHighwayPatrol) May 4, 2020
UHP learned that a sibling had been watching the 5-year-old when he somehow snuck out.
“He grabbed the keys and he was off!” said Morgan.
Troopers said the boy managed to travel a few miles before his road behavior gave him away.
“Parents said that he had not driven before and that this was the first time he’d ever done anything like this,” said Morgan.
The boy is alive and well, but troopers didn’t rule out the possibility of future consequences.
The case has been sent to the Weber County Attorney’s Office for screening.
