9-Year-Old Missed Bus, Drove Self to School in Family Chevy

A concerned citizen reported seeing an individual who "appeared too young to drive" operating a pickup truck in Maize, Kansas, on Wednesday before police discovered a 9-year-old boy had driven himself to school, per Fox News. Maize Police found the white Chevy and its driver in the parking lot of Pray-Woodman Elementary School, about three miles from the boy's home. The boy told police he missed the bus after his father had gone to work. With his mom out of town, he worried about missing state testing and felt he had no other option but to drive himself to school, per the Wichita Eagle.

The three-mile journey did not result in any issues on the road, Police Sergeant Braden Blackburn tells Fox. He says one of the first things officers noticed upon seeing the parked truck was that the boy "parked better than most people park." The boy even managed to beat some buses to school, per the Eagle. Though police took the boy's keys, they declined to issue a citation to the parents, who were both upset with the son's actions. "He is definitely in more trouble with them than he would be with us," Blackburn tells the Eagle. He adds police sometimes get calls about young-looking drivers who turn out to be high school kids. But "this was a new one for us," he tells Fox. (More Kansas stories.)