Oregon boy takes family pickup on 100-mile joyride

[August 24, 2010]  DAMASCUS, Ore. (AP) -- A 12-year-old Oregon boy had permission to drive the family pickup truck to the end of the driveway to unload trash, but he kept going until he was stopped nearly 100 miles away in Lewis County, Wash.

The Clackamas County sheriff's office says it received a call from the boy's mother, reporting the boy and the pickup missing from their home in Damascus, Ore., near Portland.

An alert went out, and the eager young driver was safely stopped by a Lewis County sheriff's deputy.

Detective Jim Strovink says the case will be referred to juvenile authorities for possible prosecution of unauthorized use of a motor vehicle and driving without a license.

Strovink says the mother didn't do anything wrong in letting the boy drive in the driveway because that's private property.

[Associated Press]

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