When I was eight years old, I would often play with toy cars around the imaginary city I constructed from Lego in my bedroom. For one eight-year-old boy in Montgomery, Alabama, this would really seem like child’s play as he was just arrested after stealing a car at gunpoint and leading police on a chase.

The incident occurred earlier in the week when the Montgomery Police Department was alerted to a car theft. A witness, who goes by ‘Snake’ Knapp, saw the young child behind the wheel of the stolen vehicle and immediately started to follow him before local authorities were able to arrive on the scene.

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“Whenever I realized it was a little boy, I knew I had to follow them and make sure no one got hit and that he got caught because don’t want him driving all over Montgomery, causing more accidents or hurting himself or hurting other people,” Knapp told WSFA 12 News. “I think parents just really need to know where their kids are, what their kids are doing, and just talk to them about these kinds of things.”

Knapp says that the child stopped at one point to pick up two adults. When police arrived on the scene, they attempted to stop the young thief but he refused to pull over. The chase only came to an end when he crashed the stolen vehicle into another car and attempted to flee on foot. He was arrested and taken to the Montgomery County Youth Detention Facility.

The boy has been charged with first-degree robbery, attempting to elude, and firearm possession. It remains uncertain what the future holds for the young boy but here’s hoping he receives the guidance he needs to avoid the easy trap of falling into a life of crime. Perhaps playing with toy cars would be a good start.

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