Missing boy with Asperger’s turns up — on the other coast
April 30th, 2009
Young teen stole dad’s car, then caught flights from Florida to California by himself; How’d he get through security with no ID?
From the San Jose Mercury News, MSNBC, ABC-News, Palm Beach Post:
Thirteen-year-old Kenton Weaver, who has Asperger’s, managed to get from his home in Boca Raton, Florida, all the way to San Jose, California, this week by himself before being discovered.
Kenton stole his dad’s Ford Explorer and drove himself 30 miles to the Fort Lauderdale airport. He then boarded a Southwest Airlines flight to Chicago with a ticket he apparently bought with his dad’s credit card, using his report card for identification. When he got to Chicago, he switched to a connecting flight.
He was found by a security officer at a ticket counter at the San Jose airport. The boy’s mother lives nearby.
The youngster has always been a bit of wanderer, his mother said as she headed north to meet with her son.
“Even at four- or five years old we’ve have problems with this” with him leaving home, that is, she said. “He’s very bright, but at the same time has very little common sense and few inhibitions.”
See also: Six tips for traveling with an autistic child — Time magazine
(Photo from Palm Beach Post)
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April 30th, 2009 at 9:24 pm
Ultimately, this story is about a boy caught in a divorce who ran away to get to his mother. Autism or Aspergers has very little to do with this.
I don’t know why they make a big deal out of his autism. What he did was reckless, but who doesn’t know a reckless 13 year old?