An 8-year-old boy hit the open road in search of a cheeseburger after using YouTube to learn how to drive his dad’s van.
Police were called to a McDonald’s in East Palestine, Ohio, on Sunday when the boy and his 4-year-old sister arrived at the restaurant without supervision.
“This kid learned how to drive on YouTube. He probably looked it up for five minutes and then said it was time to go,” East Palestine Police Officer Jacob Koehler told the Morning Journal News.
The unnamed child strapped his little sister in the passenger seat and headed out to the fast food joint at about 8 p.m. His parents were sleeping, police said.
The child pulled up to the drive-through window to pay for his cheeseburger with money he brought from his piggy bank.
“The workers thought that the parents were in the back, but obviously they weren’t,” Koehler said.
Thankfully, the child’s YouTube instructions were pretty effective because police said four witnesses explained how the 8-year-old boy obeyed all traffic laws. The police officer told reporters that when he first got the call, he expected to see a trail of damage on the boy’s route to McDonald’s.
“He didn’t hit a single thing on the way there,” Koehler said. “It was unreal.”
Despite his impeccable driving police did have to tell the boy he had done something wrong, which resulted in a lot of tears.
Officer Koehler was able to calm him down and provided the kids with a cheeseburger, chicken nuggets and fries while they waited for their grandparents.
“A friend of the family saw what was going on and called the grandparents,” he said.
Koehler told reporters that the children had breakfast, lunch and dinner that day but still really wanted a McDonald’s cheeseburger.
No charges were filed, but we wouldn’t be surprised if the boy’s YouTube access is now limited.
