Slashdot Mirror
6 year old hotwires car-heads to highway
D3 writes "Who knew how easy it could be to
hotwire a kiddie car? This 6 year old had no problem. " Heh-I needed to read something like this. Kids-they're gonna take everything over. Thanks to modnar for a more detailed story.
Oh, you too? I was just obtaining my Master's degree in Differential Equations, was holding down a full-time job at NASA, had built a nuclear powered submarine from Lego's and K'Nex in my bathtub, and was captain of the College debate team. I also tried out for runningback on the college football team, but they said that at 2'9" I was just too easy to tackle. No one really considered me a child prodigy either. As a matter of fact, I got grounded for a week when I got a B on my test over Linear Homogeneus Recurrence Relationships with Constant Coefficients.
+--
Given infinite time, 100 monkeys could type out the complete works of Shakespeare.
+-- (Score:-1, Moderator on Power Trip)
This kid definately has the hacker nature. Rewiring things, boldly going places where other kids only dream, and then getting arrested by the cops for it.
--
This kid is obviously intelligent and independent.
We must stop him before he becomes a threat to our stable and predictable society.
-CJ
>This must be a pretty smart 6 year old to reconnect the wires,
No, not really. I have a 6 yr old and he has a powerwheel vehicle probably similar to this. What it sound like is that the 6v battery connector was simply disconnected to keep shoppers' kids fom driving around (dumb, should have taken the battery out).
It is like plugging in a wall socket to reconnect the battery. My 6 yr old does this all the time since you have to unplug the battery to connect it to the charger, and then connect it back up when done charging. If this kid had ever used one of these, he would have no problem.
What is unnerving about all this is how he walked away from daycare and decided to go for a drive. I can't imagine my son even thinking to do something like this.
This kid is obviously Slashdot material!
I think we need a new poll:
How old are you?
1) 0-6
2) 6-12
3) 12-18
4) 18-22
5) 22-30
6) 30-40
7) Old fart
I don't think he was completly kidding. Any kid that age that had the balls (boy right?) and skills to sneak outta a preschool walk about a mile to that other place (the other story said the toy shop was a mile away approx) find that car pop the hood and go off with it down the highway. That takes serious planning and a certain drive. I bet that kid would make a great hacker, or atleast someone I'd be proud to say I know.
It's really sad what day care centers have come to. Heck, even when I was a child, things went on at day care centers that would have qualified as neglect or abuse nowadays. I remember being confined to the corner for reading some older kid's t-shirt outloud because it was highly offensive, yet nothing was done to the child WEARING the shirt because they didn't want to be bothered. I remember them forcing my little brother (who was only 5 at the time) to eat an entire bar of soap... and they didn't even TRY to consult my mother before administering this type of unusual - and potentially harmful - punishment. We never had children disappear from the premises, however we had day care workers leave kids out on the playground unsupervised when it was time to come inside just because they didn't feel like chasing them down... and I guess they didn't realize how easy it is to climb over a cyclone fence.
I know many people fault parents for not spending time with their children, but in the modern world where both parents need to work to make ends meet, day care is often the only solution the have for supervision during work hours. It is a shame that while society is forced to have to trust in other people for the well-being of their children that often those who are put in charge don't keep up with their duties as they should and then the industry itself gets a bad name. Inadequate training is often a contributing factor to the low quality of child care. I happen to know many of the workers in centers are often high school students who are working during the summer, or graduates who have no official training or certification.
I don't know about you, but if I'm going to entrust the life and health of a child to someone for the duration of 8+ hours then they'd better have a piece of paper to show me they know how.
-- Shadowcat
kageneko@kageneko.net
"I can roleplay. I can frag. I can PK while you lag."
The story left out the fact that there was a police pursuit to stop the kid. A bunch of officers in little battery-powered police cars and battery-powered motorcycles chased the 6-year-old at speeds in excess of 10mph. Witnesses said the most frightening thing was the "Woo Woo" siren noises the police were making with their mouths.
The pursuit stopped when one officer shouted, "Bang! I shot you! You're dead!" The child responded with, "Did not!" The officer then replied "Did too!" This went on for several minutes....
Save the whales. Feed the hungry. Free the mallocs.
It may not have much to do with age, but physical ability. At five, I had teeth to take toys and little electric motors apart. The same teeth could strip wires. I found these wires fit electric wall sockets and discovered electricity was pure energy. Luckly, I conducted these experiments very early in the morning before the parents would wake and the loud pops would go unnoticed. I would draw pictures of wires, batteries, motors, powering cars, etc. I knew too much... I was dangerous...
My mom took me shopping for my fith birthday so I could choose my present. Radio Shack was popular at the time and I found the box for an electronic project kit bigger and more colorful than the box of a flashlight. It went over, because my dad had an interest in electronics. They helped me build a single transistor radio. I remember picking up my first country radio station (that was back when country music was real!) For xmas of that year, I asked Santa for nuts, bolts, and wires. Twenty five years later, I work at a wire and cable specialty manufacturing plant as the sole senior technicican on my shift. My dream came true in the grandest sense.
It's Obvious what the kid was doing, he must have wanted a place to put a car mounted mp3 player...
Lighten up, the statements of boasting where simply made to be humorius. Didn't you ever sit around with your friends and tell baltent lies that you and everybody else knew where lies. Its just something humans love to do, embellish. Ever since the first human caught a 2 inch fish and told their friends about the whopper they caught the other day, humans have been embellishing. Chill out, and take it all with a grain of salt. It's funny.. and thats all.
Come on, it wasn't really a kid. It was Mini Me. After Austin Powers 2, Dr. Evil and Mini Me landed in Hamilton, Ohio to see what trouble they could cause. Being so close to the home of Larry Flynt, they figured that there should be some evil waiting to happen.
If I were his parents, I'd be checking out a new daycare center. For that matter, if I were one of the other kids' parents.
i drive the highway that the kid was on just about every day. i can honestly say that i probably wouldn't have expected to see such a sight.
... people ten times his age have problems keeping from getting smashed up.
btw, its a very busy road. five lanes of 35 mph traffic
actually, the funniest thing i heard about this story was when a motorist (female) got out of her car to say "honey, you shouldn't be in the road, its dangerous (or something to that effect)" -- the kid replied "Shut Up!" ahhhh road rage, at such an early age.