'Highly Resourceful' 4-Year-Old Crashes Mother's Car

When police in the Dutch city of Utrecht found a barefoot 4-year-boy in pajamas walking down a street Saturday morning, they took him to the station and gave him hot chocolate. Soon afterward, a report came in of a vehicle that had been abandoned after hitting two parked cars—and officers realized the culprit was already at the station. In an Instagram post, police said the boy had taken his mother's keys and "decided to go for a drive" after he was woken up early by his father leaving for work, the Guardian reports. Police say that when they called the boy's mother, the car's registered owner, she "spoke to the child on the phone, and we saw him imitate a collision and make a steering movement with his hands," reports the BBC.

Police say they took the boy to meet his parents at the vehicle and asked him if he could show them how it worked. "He opened the car, and put the key in the ignition," police said. "He started the car, moved his left foot to the clutch, and hit the accelerator." The boy's mother described him as "highly resourceful." Nobody was injured in the crash, and the "mini boy-racer’s adventure ended with a fizzle," said police, who advised parents to keep their car keys hidden. (More Netherlands stories.)