Boy, 13, drives father’s Mercedes across Europe

ROME: A 13-year-old boy ran away from his adoptive parents in Italy, taking his father’s Mercedes and driving 1,000 km toward his native Poland before being stopped in Germany. The boy — a go-kart enthusiast — managed to pass motorway toll booths and cross two international borders in his two-day drive across northern Italy, Austria and half of Germany. “He looks like a 16-year-old, but still! He managed to fuel up and pass two borders.
It’s just incredible,” Eleonora Spadati, head of local Carabinieri police in Montebelluna in northeast Italy where the boy ran from, told AFP yesterday. Spadati said the boy missed Poland and wanted to see his biological sister. Just before leaving on Thursday with just 200 euros (around $ 270) in his pocket and a passport, he had also argued with his parents after they confiscated his mobile phone as a punishment for topping up its credit without their consent.
The boy’s parents quickly realized their son might have tried to go to Poland and contacted local Italian police. German traffic police picked him up just 200 km from the Polish border on Friday.