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AP Wire | 08/31/2006 | Deaf boy, 8, ticketed for driving car in Brooksville
He isn't even old enough to have a license, but an 8-year-old deaf boy got a traffic ticket Thursday after taking a family car for a joyride, authorities said.
Kobie Stires, who has been deaf since birth, was ticketed for driving without a license by the Hernando County sheriff's office after borrowing a car his mother had been driving.
Stires took keys for a 1999 Dodge Intrepid from his mother's purse while she slept. Witnesses said he drove approximately two miles and ran over a street sign before returning the car.
A man called the sheriff's office to report that he had seen the boy driving and that the car had been parked at a mobile home.
The 4-foot-tall Stires caused about $5,000 damage to the car. The car's wheels were bent and the front right wheel damaged, the St. Petersburg Times reported.
After a deputy arrived at the mobile home where she was staying, Stires' mother Nitasha Pridemore, 25, noticed the car's driver's seat was pulled all the way forward and realized her son had been driving. The car belongs to Pridemore's mother, but she had been borrowing it.
Pridemore told the paper that her son has always been interested in cars and trucks and that her mother sometimes lets him steer the car when driving near her house.
"I'm speechless. I don't know what to do," Pridemore said. "I'm taking this as a sign that I've got a lot of trouble on my hands."
Individuals who are deaf or hearing impaired can get a license in Florida but must have an outside rearview mirror mounted on the left hand side of the vehicle, according to the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. Individuals as young as 15 can be issued a learner's license to drive in the state.
Stires is due in court Oct. 4.
He isn't even old enough to have a license, but an 8-year-old deaf boy got a traffic ticket Thursday after taking a family car for a joyride, authorities said.
Kobie Stires, who has been deaf since birth, was ticketed for driving without a license by the Hernando County sheriff's office after borrowing a car his mother had been driving.
Stires took keys for a 1999 Dodge Intrepid from his mother's purse while she slept. Witnesses said he drove approximately two miles and ran over a street sign before returning the car.
A man called the sheriff's office to report that he had seen the boy driving and that the car had been parked at a mobile home.
The 4-foot-tall Stires caused about $5,000 damage to the car. The car's wheels were bent and the front right wheel damaged, the St. Petersburg Times reported.
After a deputy arrived at the mobile home where she was staying, Stires' mother Nitasha Pridemore, 25, noticed the car's driver's seat was pulled all the way forward and realized her son had been driving. The car belongs to Pridemore's mother, but she had been borrowing it.
Pridemore told the paper that her son has always been interested in cars and trucks and that her mother sometimes lets him steer the car when driving near her house.
"I'm speechless. I don't know what to do," Pridemore said. "I'm taking this as a sign that I've got a lot of trouble on my hands."
Individuals who are deaf or hearing impaired can get a license in Florida but must have an outside rearview mirror mounted on the left hand side of the vehicle, according to the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. Individuals as young as 15 can be issued a learner's license to drive in the state.
Stires is due in court Oct. 4.