Ever hear the story about the 9-year-old boy who found his way to an airport, passed all security check points and hopped on a flight to Las Vegas to visit an online gaming friend?
No? Well that happened. And he did it all by himself, which sounds just as alarming as it is. Especially because his parents didn’t send him to the airport and he wasn’t cleared to ride as an “unsupervised minor” on the flight.
It’s true. But the details about the incident are even more baffling. And we have some questions:
1. Like, how did this kid know how to get all the way to Minneapolis-St Paul International Airport by himself?
2. And how did he get past not one, but three security checkpoints without producing a ticket?
3. Why didn’t any TSA agents question this kid walking around alone in the airport?
4. And how did he know to steal a bag off of the baggage carousel in an effort to look as normal as all the other travelers?
5. Better yet, when he sat down to a meal in an airport restaurant, why didn’t the server question why a little boy was just chilling at the table, eating alone?
6. And who taught him to dine & dash? (Yep, that happened too. He told the server he was going to the restroom and never came back to pay the bill).
7. How did he choose which seat to sit in IF HE HAD NO TICKET?!
8. And who the hell is this “video game buddy” he told Las Vegas police he was planning to meet when he got off the plane? Like, do we need to call Chris Hansen?
9. And last but certainly not least…WHERE IN THE FUCK WERE HIS PARENTS AND WHY DIDN’T THEY NOTICE HE WAS GONE?
Now you’re probably all like…
But we promise…those are all the details we know. And while it sounds like a hilarious or sentimental plot to a movie about a kid taking a journey, (minus the boy meeting some creepy gamer dude in Vegas), it’s actually a pretty sad story about a kid who this year alone has been in child protection assessments four times.
And yep, that happened too. Here’s hoping he stays safe and gets the help he needs.
PHOTO CREDIT: Giffy, Getty
