COLUMBUS – Police say they arrested five youngsters, one only 11 years old, who went joyriding in a stolen car in Whitehall Wednesday morning.
It started just before 9:10 a.m. when witnesses reported seeing several juveniles who “did not appear old enough to drive,” getting out of a stolen car near E. Broad Street and Hamilton Road, according to a release posted on the Whitehall Police Department Twitter feed.
Officers found four of the youths trying to break into a second car and arrested them. One of the suspects was already wanted on an arrest warrant on a robbery charge, Whitehall police said.
Detectives stopped another suspect as they tried to drive away in the first vehicle while the remaining suspects ran away and tried to escape in a waiting vehicle police say was also stolen and those youths got away when police abandoned a pursuit out of safety concerns.
Five of the suspects – ages 11, 13, 15 and 16 — were rounded up and taken to the Franklin County Juvenile Detention Center, which would only accept the youth who was wanted on the felony warrant, so the rest were taken to the Village Network Reception Center where three of them escaped, police said.
The two 13-year-old juveniles were arrested again by the Columbus police in another stolen car.