Five-Year-Old Takes Mum's 4x4 For Joyride

11:15am UK, Friday March 19, 2010

Mark Langford

Sky News Online

A five-year-old boy took his mother's 4x4 on a four-mile joyride that included a dual carriageway, despite being too short to reach the pedals.

Thomas Chatfield could barely see over the dashboard of the automatic Mitsubishi Shogun as he trundled along at 10mph.

Motorists called 999 and some tried to get him to pull over but he still managed to weave along country lanes, hit two parked vehicles and clip a passing motorist before coming to halt when he went into a wall.

Thomas took the keys from mum Jessica's handbag as she slept at the family home in Tangmere, West Sussex.

"He's a clever boy. He's seen his mum drive loads of times and must have tried to copy her," a family friend told the Daily Mirror.

Neighbour Nathan Parkinson, aged 22, told how he and a van driver friend chased after the Shogun: "I was walking down the road and saw this Shogun.

"I heard a woman shouting behind me that a little boy was driving. I could just see a pair of tiny eyes above the dashboard.