The thieves are getting younger.

Where on earth has he learned to drive at such a young age?

On a farm. Quite a number of young people I knew in my youth drove as soon as they were big enough to reach the pedals.

They weren't stealing caravans (!) but they did drive around the farmland and by 13 many were driving tractors.

Oh yes. Had forgotten old aerodromes Calendargirl!

There's nothing new about it really. The first school I taught in had a children's home in its catchment area and at least one of the children was in because her dad had been using her to burgle houses. Putting her through windows that were too small for him.
The travellers community are not the only group that make their living from crime. There is a substantial underclass.

Calendargirl

But then we all just sit here, with our own thoughts and assumptions, not posting anything at all?

That’s just silly I m saying you shouldn’t be publicly ethnically profiling the child when none of us know who he is or what group or tribe he belongs to
I m totally surprised and saddened Avaline and Calandergirl that you think it’s ok to to publicly jump to conclusions about the child’s ethnicity with no hint other than he’s a thief
I thought we were well past that obviously not

BlueBelle

Calendargirl

But then we all just sit here, with our own thoughts and assumptions, not posting anything at all?

That’s just silly I m saying you shouldn’t be publicly ethnically profiling the child when none of us know who he is or what group or tribe he belongs to
I m totally surprised and saddened Avaline and Calandergirl that you think it’s ok to to publicly jump to conclusions about the child’s ethnicity with no hint other than he’s a thief
I thought we were well past that obviously not

I think it is probably just easier and less scary to think it is an easily identifiable group doing this, rather than realising it could be that nice bloke round the corner who seems to be quite strict with his kids and who has some sort of business, but no one is quite sure what he does.

NotSpaghetti

^Where on earth has he learned to drive at such a young age?^

On a farm. Quite a number of young people I knew in my youth drove as soon as they were big enough to reach the pedals.

They weren't stealing caravans (!) but they did drive around the farmland and by 13 many were driving tractors.

I can understand that children with access to large areas of private land and vehicles can master the mechanics of driving, but that's nothing like negotiating a busy motorway. Many years ago my surgeon, an army officer, said his daughter learned to drive on army property, passed her test at the first attempt and then promptly wrote off his car on her first solo trip. Luckily it was only the metal that was mangled, she walked away unhurt. Negotiating motorway traffic, and I've not read any reports he was driving erratically, is some skill!

How did he reach the pedals?

I'm still trying to get my head around an 11 year old towing a caravan. If today was April 1st, I wouldn't have believed it.

I don't know the area but think he'd just got on the M1. They were tracking the vehicle.

The police said "the vehicle was stopped on the M1 after it left the A1 at Hook Moor Interchange near Garforth."

Blue Belle.

I disagree with your comment about Vera making assumptions.
She has a distinguished track record for profiling criminals and solving crimes in the North.
Meg.

Comments may be based on prior experience with a particular 'group' or 'tribe'. Time will tell who has guessed most accurately.

Loads of people here learn to drive by the time they are 12. Mostly on farms driving paddock bombs. Many of my friends learnt that way, male and female. A thing that is happening here is older crims getting young kids to do their burgling and house breaking because if they get caught nothing happens to them because they are so young.

It's not about accuracy Aveline!

You are right nanna8

I once worked with a particularly jolly ex-offender who had been put through windows as a boy and gone on to a career in crime. It was this man who demonstrated "how to remove an old-style patio door in 30 seconds! 😱

If the older criminal who "took him under his wing" had been a car thief I guess his skills might have been different!

Older people have 'used' children for criminal activities for ever, probably since the dawn of recorded history and before...

The fact that there was no 'age of criminal responsibility'' until relatively recently, which meant the children could be subject to the same draconian punishments as their elders, didn't seem to have much of a deterrent effect...

Yes it is NotSpaghetti! Several of us had the same thought as to this boy's background. Time will tell if we were right.

Oh my goodness you still don’t get it Avaline it’s nothing to do with you being right or wrong it’s the immediate assumptions on a public forum that you can name the ethnicity of child no one has ANY information about !!!

The equivalent would be if I wrote ‘I had a big plant stolen off my doorstep last night’ and you wrote ‘Ah that would be a Lillipudlian taking your plant’

Yes it is NotSpaghetti! Several of us had the same thought as to this boy's background. Time will tell if we were right
And you still don’t get it my good grief, head in hands

Exactly my point BlueBelle

It's not a guessing game "guess the ethnicity".

Having taught at a school with a great many traveller children, who came and went regularly, that this child. Kuldip be a traveller was my first thought .

Bluebelle 👍 keep going

We gave my first car to the 3 children of a farming friend. They drove it down the mile long access road every morning and left it at the gate to wait for their taxi pick-up for school, then did the same in reverse at night. At the time, none of them was 11 and they all drove it - Fiat 500 - for years.

It was everyone’s first thought despite all the pious comments!

Whether the assumptions are correct or not, it is distasteful to suggest (without proof) the child's ethnicity on a public forum.
I am with Bluebelle on this.

Another Bluebelle supporter here, cracking young driver though !