If you’re a parent, or you look after kids for your job, you’ll know all too well how cheeky they can be.
Sometimes we assume that kids are being insolent – but a lot of the time, their behavior simply reflects their lack of common sense at a young age.
We’ve all seen those videos of toddlers raiding the fridge at midnight, creating bubble baths that fill the entire bathroom, or covering themselves in pen tattoos. If they want to do something, they’ll do it, often without considering the consequences.
So when one little 4-year-old boy in Minnesota was craving candy, he went to unbelievable lengths to get some.
Sebastian Swenson might be too small to see over the wheel of his great-grandfather’s SUV, but he still didn’t hesitate to hop in the car and make a mile-and-a-half trek to a Speedway.
During rush hour, the determined little boy made the trip along University Avenue, in Blaine, to pick up his snacks.
Most kids wouldn’t have a clue how to drive, but Sebastian somehow knew everything.
At around 8:30 on an average Tuesday morning, he hatched The Great Candy Plan: he would sneak out in his great-grandfather’s Hyundai Santa Fe when his family’s backs were turned.
Jenna Swenson, Sebastian’s mother, said that the moment she realized her son had taken off on the road, she felt “panic” and “anxiety”.
She added:
“A little of almost all the emotions going on…trying to calculate what happened.”
Sebastian was all too happy to reenact his great escape: he had used his great-grandpa Roy’s walker to grab the car key from a wall hook, then raced to the driver’s seat when nobody was watching.
The big question here is: how does a 4-year-old know so much about driving?
According to Roy, Sebastian is simply so good at observing people that he was able to mimic what he had seen others do on the road.
He said:
“He watches everything people do and he’ll repeat it.”
Leaving his great-grandpa’s house behind in a trail of dust, Sebastian set off, stretching to reach the pedals and see over the steering wheel at the same time.
He managed to back out of the driveway and pass through a few winding neighborhood roads before making it to the four-lane University Avenue.
Unsurprisingly, Sebastian left a trail of destruction behind him on his short joyride.
Witnesses recall seeing the SUV driving erratically along University Avenue, and he hit a few trees and mailboxes along the way. There was even part of his grandfather’s bumper in a neighbor’s front yard.
Sadly for Sebastian, It didn’t take long for cops to descend on him – and it happened on a gas station parking lot, right as he was about to collect his candy.
Capt. Mark Boerboom with the Blaine Police Department, was astounded by the encounter.
He said:
“I’ve never seen a driver this young before operating a vehicle.”
Nobody would expect such a small child to even consider driving a car, let alone follow through and end up on a busy road.
Sebastian’s family has now locked up his grandfather’s keys and vows to keep a much closer eye on the cheeky youngster.
You can check out the video below to learn more about this unbelievable story!
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