Middle school was already tough enough before social media. You’ve got to start over at a new school, make new friends and deal with all the weirdness of puberty, as well as navigate an unfamiliar, constantly changing social scene. You don’t feel like a kid anymore, but you’re also far from being an adult, and as much as you want independence, you still need your parents to take you to hang out with your friend. One Florida girl recently found a solution to that last problem, though, by simply stealing her dad’s car.
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NBC Miami reports that the 12-year-old girl in question didn’t merely take her dad’s Ford Taurus without permission to go over to a nearby friend’s house. She and her 14-year-old friend left the state of Florida entirely on a road trip to visit someone they met online. Their road trip eventually came to an end in Bayou La Batre, Alabama, nearly 400 miles from home. After stopping for gas, the two girls saw their pictures on the gas station’s television as part of a missing child alert and decided to turn themselves in.
The age and identity of the person they were driving to meet are still unknown, and at the time they went missing, the police report said law enforcement didn’t suspect any foul play. But after they were found, Union County Chief Deputy Capt. Lyn Williams told NBC that “suspicious circumstances” had raised some “red flags.” The FBI will reportedly be investigating further.
Should they have stolen a car and driven to meet someone they only knew online? Not at all. It was reckless and beyond dangerous. But we won’t pretend we aren’t at least a little impressed that a 12-year-old managed to safely drive that far on an impromptu road trip with her friend, knew how to pump gas and even had money for gas. Hopefully, the police don’t come down too hard on them. Going to jail for taking a road trip would just be un-American.