A young brother and sister decided to take their mom's car and go for a joyride in the middle of the night after she took away their electronic devices.
At around 3:50AM on Thursday (September 21), police officers stopped an unidentified 10-year-old boy and an 11-year-old girl as they rode in their mother's sedan on Interstate 75 in Alachua, Florida, NBC News reports.
The two kids were on a three-hour ride north of home in North Port, a city in southwest Florida more than 200 miles away, in the early hours of the morning.
The worried mother - who was also not identified - reported her children missing and filed a report for her stolen vehicle. Due to this deputies conducted a "high-risk traffic stop," the sheriff’s office said in a Facebook post.
When deputies spotted the sedan, they stopped it and ordered the people inside out at gunpoint. Much to their surprise, they saw a 10-year-old boy hop out of the driver's seat and his 11-year-old sister exit the car.
Authorities then discovered that the siblings were reported missing in North Port and that the stolen vehicle belonged to their mother, the post said.
The sheriff's office's social media post included two photographs of the children leaving the automobile with their hands raised. The department covered their faces in the images to hide their identities.
After many Facebook users commented on the post, asking for more details, the department provided an update on September 22, revealing that both children "were upset with their mother because she took away their electronic devices." Police added that the reason the mother confiscated the devices was that the pre-teens were "not using them appropriately".
Furthermore, they disclosed that the pair's mom drove three hours to pick them up and take them home. They are unlikely to face consequences for their actions because their mother did not want to press criminal charges.
However, they could still be criminally charged for driving without a valid license in a stolen vehicle. But as this is a misdemeanor traffic violation, it would not lead to detention in a juvenile facility.
In addition to speaking with the children, Alachua police officers also had a conversation with their mother.
"Our Detectives did speak with their mother at length who was clearly doing her best to raise two young children and she was very receptive to the recommendations they provided in helping her get assistance," the statement concluded.