Crime & Safety

News of the Strange: Did 9-Year-Old Vegas Stowaway Drive Stolen Truck into Edina Squad Car?

Edina Police have confirmed that a parked squad car was hit by a delivery truck on Oct. 1.

Written by Zac Farber

The 9-year-old Minneapolis boy accused of sneaking onto a flight to Las Vegas may have crashed a stolen truck into an Edina squad car last Tuesday.

Around 2:17 p.m on Oct. 1, a delivery truck collided with an Edina police car parked at Xerxes Avenue and 56th Street, causing $5,888 in damages, Edina police spokeswoman Kaylin Martin said.

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The truck was stolen in downtown Minneapolis by a 9-year-old boy, State Patrol spokesman Lt. Eric Roeske told Minnesota Public Radio. After the truck hit the squad car, it was stopped by police near Armatage Elementary, around 56th Street and Queen Avenue, in south Minneapolis.

A cube truck was stolen from United Noodles Wholesale shortly before 2 p.m., police told KARE 11. A company spokesperson said the truck’s driver left the vehicle running in the parking lot for five minutes while they went inside to fill out paperwork.

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Roeske said he was barred by state law from disclosing the boy’s identity or whether he was involved in any other crimes, butMPR’s anonymous law enforcement sources said the truck-driving 9-year-old was the same Minneapolis boy who two days later boarded a Delta flight from Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport to Las Vegas.

On Oct. 3, a 9-year-old boy sneaked past the airport’s TSA security checkpoint by blending into a larger family before boarding the airplane to Vegas while a Delta agent was busy.

Before his stowaway adventure, the Minneapolis boy had won the notice of Hennepin County child protective investigators for stealing a car and for sneaking into a water park.

Children under ten cannot be prosecuted as criminals in Minnesota. USA Today is reporting that the 9-year-old is due to return to Minnesota as soon as today.


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