Who among us hasn’t succumbed to Target’s siren song at some point? Dollars on sale, cute clothes, home decor, in-store Starbucks, we treat ourselves to a little bit: it all calls to us. Apparently, for some people, the urge to run to Target starts early and is strong. Take, for example, an 8-year-old girl in Ohio who recently drove herself through the aisles of our favorite retail therapy spot.
Cleveland NBC affiliate WKYC shared news of a missing girl from Bedford, Ohio, and her family’s car at 7 a.m. Sunday, September 15th. , shows the child getting into a car alone and driving away. From there, Bedford police must follow more leads to determine exactly where the child is. Fortunately, a citizen reported a child driving a car that matched the description of the family’s Nissan Rogue, and police had traffic camera footage of the vehicle. Eventually, they found the car in a Target parking lot, nearly half an hour from the child’s home.
We were equally shocked and impressed, and had so many questions. What made this kid grab his keys and sneak out of the house? What does she need at Target? Did she have any money with her, or was she just shopping? Where did she learn to drive? How did her foot hit the pedal? Did she find her way from memory or use GPS? We know that at this age, the prefrontal cortex is basically like soup (no shade to the kid: that’s developmentally appropriate), but what exactly does she think is going to happen?
Police reported that while the girl hit a mailbox while driving and totaled the car, no one was reportedly injured, WKYC reported. So…we guess that all is well and ends well, but our hearts are still racing for all the “what ifs.”
Now, please forgive me: I’m going to hide my car keys somewhere because at this point I have no idea what my Target-loving 10-year-old might be capable of…
