FAIRFIELD, Ohio (Reuters) - A 6-year-old boy with a taste for the open
road escaped from his Ohio day care center and
took a toy truck for a joy ride on a local highway before police stopped
him, police said Tuesday.
John Carpenter, 6, was found unharmed on Friday behind the wheel of a dark
blue battery-powered toy truck headed down the
highway in Fairfield, Ohio about 20 miles north of Cincinnati.
He had cruised about a mile in the dark blue truck, described by police as
knee high and about 3 feet long. A flabbergasted
motorist spotted him and telephoned authorities. Police were unable to say
how fast the boy was traveling.
Police spokesman Ken Colburn said the boy had walked out of the Kiddie
Kampus Pre-School and Day Care Center in
Fairfield and came upon the truck parked outside ReRuns for Wee Ones, a
second-hand children's store.
The battery-operated truck's wires had been unhooked, but the child
reattached them, pulled off the price tag and hopped in.
Authorities later discovered that he had the same toy truck at home, which
was how he knew to pop open the trunk and connect
the cables.
The truck was returned without a scratch and was sold the next day to
someone who had been amused by the story, Thomin
said. Police were investigating how the boy escaped from the day care
center.
