Seven Year Old, Latarian Milton Steals Car and Does Hood Rat Stuff with a Friend

I usually pride myself on the fact that I am not easily shocked. Considering all of the interesting facets of human nature and behavior, I expect that people are capable of doing just about anything. Despite that knowledge and expectancy, I found myself shocked last week. I watched (several times) in amazement as reporter Ted White, spun an amazing tale of a young boy, seven year old Latarian Milton.

Milton, who was angry at his mother took the keys to his grandmother's SUV, picked up a friend and then proceeded to go on a destructive joyride through Palm Beach Gardens. After destroying several mailboxes, hitting several parked cars and several moving cars, his demolition derby came to an end after he ran the curb and hit a sign. Latarian drove the vehicle until the wheels fell off...literally. His grandmother's SUV suffered the most damage, a broken axle and the wheels falling off.

Police were alerted to the situation when they began receiving calls reporting a driver who couldn't see over the steering wheel, according to police spokesperson Ellen Lovejoy. No one was physically hurt during the ordeal. The police did however arrest and charge Latarian for stealing and then released him to his family. Lovejoy expressed that the charges would not likely be prosecuted, but by charging young Milton, it would get him access to the help he needs.

The fact that a seven year old stole a car isn't shocking to me, in fact I actually do remember cases of young kids going for a joyride in the car. I can recall a couple of joyrides that I took myself as a young boy although I was a lot older, and the last thing I wanted was to be caught so my driving was next to impeccable. I can even remember laughing while watching the movie Big Shots, where two 11 year old steal a car, but that was for a good cause as they were trying to find the father of one of the boys, to keep the kid from ending up in a foster home. But this was different, it was real life for one and the cause was not good.

What shocks me in this case is the mindset of the young driver and the fact that it was meant to be destructive to begin with. When asked if he knew that he could have hurt or killed someone, Latarian replied, "Yes, but it's fun to do bad things" "I wanted to do hood rat stuff with my friend." The seven year old couldn't even describe how he was able to put the car in gear stating "I yanked it...I yanked the thing!" Latarian's response to whether or not he should be punished "Maybe no video games for the whole weekend." Hmmm I'm thinking maybe no video games ever again in his or his children's children's lifetime.

What's shocking to me is this young boy's concept of bad being good. It's obvious when you hear him talk, that like most seven year olds, he doesn't quite have everything figured out, and yet he had the idea that not only would it be fun to do something bad, but he actually thought about it and then carried it out. This both shocks and amazes me.

You see I grew up in the era prior to kids being able to dial 555-child-abuse. My parents not only whipped my but over things that I actually did wrong, but they also had some sort of physic abilities because they would whip my butt for thinking about doing something wrong. (To this day it's hard for me to preconceive doing something wrong, let alone something that will cause injury or harm to others.) I could hear the stress and the frustration in the grandmother's voice, as she expressed that she wanted to whip Latarian, and that if she didn't think that she would be arrested herself she would have been whipping him right at that moment. i can't help but wonder what has this kid been seeing and hearing that makes him think that stealing a car and hitting things is fun, (maybe a little GTA?)

Whatever the case one thing is clear to me, little kids are seeing way too much and way too soon, add to that the fact that many parents are afraid to discipline their kids, and add to that the increasing likely hood that there are not many positive role models around and you get young kids like Milton. They say that the children are the future, if that is the case then maybe we better start paying attention...because apparently a part of our future thinks that it is fun to do "hood rat stuff" with friends.