Lakewood, Wash. – A 9-year-old boy with a history of stealing cars and running away sneaked onto a plane bound for Texas, getting caught after flubbing an airport connection, officials said.
Semaj Booker apparently found a Southwest Airlines boarding card and made it through airport security Monday, hopping two separate flights – from Seattle to Phoenix and from Phoenix to San Antonio – but fell short of his Dallas destination, police said.
The fourth-grader remained in juvenile custody in San Antonio on Wednesday. He had been trying to get to his grandfather in Dallas, where he used to live.
The airline said in a statement that a young man approached the ticket counter at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport requesting a boarding pass and said his mother was already in the boarding area.
“The young man’s information matched a paid, ticketless reservation for the flight. Based on the information he gave us, he was issued a boarding pass,” the airline said.
He was not listed as a child because he told the agent he was 12, Southwest said.
Airline employees in San Antonio stopped Semaj from boarding another flight when he couldn’t explain why he didn’t have a boarding pass, said David Hebert, spokesman for the San Antonio International Airport.
The boy was unhappy after his family moved to Lakewood, outside Tacoma. His odyssey began Sunday when he stole a car that was left running outside a neighbor’s house, only to be spotted by police near Interstate 5, authorities said.
Police pursued Semaj at speeds up to 90 mph until the engine blew. The car then went over a curb and coasted into a tree. He refused to come out, so officers had to break a window.
He was released to his mother, but he ran away again, authorities said.
The Pierce County, Wash., prosecutor filed three charges against Booker on Wednesday in juvenile court, all related to the vehicle theft.
Last month, the boy crashed a stolen car before being caught by police in Tacoma, and more recently he was caught in Seattle in a stolen car that had run out of gas, said his mother, Sakinah Booker. She believes he learned to drive from playing video games on a PlayStation.
