On September 15, a police department in Ohio received a phone call reporting a missing eight year old. Eventually, she was found to have driven herself to Target using her mother’s SUV.
Minutes before 9 a.m. on Sunday, Bedford Police Department received a phone call indicating that the woman’s eight-year-old daughter had gone missing for more than two hours. So had her 2020 Nissan Rogue. Looking at the neighbor’s Ring camera footage, the police found that the girl had gotten into the car and driven off at around 7 a.m. herself. According to The New York Times, the girl drove 25 minutes from her house to the Bainbridge Target 11 miles away.
During the two hours, the police had received phone calls about a vehicle weaving between lanes, the driver possibly “driving under the influence or having a medical emergency,” as reported byJustin Kimberly, an eyewitness of the incident. Kimberly noted that he could “barely see the driver,” and that he attempted to signal the driver while she turned into a parking lot, which was effortless. “I tried to signal her to slow down or stop if possible, and she just kept going,” Kimberly added, “It looked like she was distracted inside the vehicle.” Moments later, residents were sent a notification on the exact description of the car, being alerted of this eight-year-old and the Rogue, which was when Kimberly made sense of the “missing driver.”
The Bainbridge police searched around town, and finally located the Nissan in the Target parking lot. The girl confessed she had hit a mailbox on her drive to Target. After being found, the parents quickly gathered to pick her up.
How the child learned to drive remains unknown, as the mother refused to make any comment after the news broke.
According to Rick Suts, the deputy chief of Bedford Police Department, “no one is facing charges.”
Hours later, Bedford police posted on Facebook. “Well I’ve finally found a woman who’s in more of a hurry to shop at Target than my wife,” wrote the poster, finding humor in this entire incident. “More of hurry by 8 years. That’s right an 8 year old took mommy’s car this morning and drove to Target in Bainbridge to shop. Thankfully she made it and was immediately located by Bainbridge Police. She’s now home safe. Not sure what she bought, or if she was even able to use her Target app to save 5%. We did let her finish her Frappuccino. We’re not mean.”
