‘Resourceful’ Dutch four-year-old takes mother’s car for joyride in pyjamas and bare feet

‘Fortunately, this mini driver’s adventure has come to an end with a sizzle’

The four-year-old demonstrated to authorities how he put keys in the ignition, moved his left foot to the clutch and pressed the gas pedal (Screenshot | Instagram/ politie_utrechtnoord)

A four-year-old boy in Netherlands has been compared to racing driver Max Verstappen after he took his mother’s car for a spin on Saturday.

“New Max Verstappen found in (the Utrecht suburb of) Overvecht,” police wrote in an Instagram post, referring to the Belgian-Dutch Formula One champion.

Utrecht police said that the four-year-old woke up on Saturday after his father went to work and took the keys to his mother’s car to go for a drive.

A passerby found the child in his pyjamas, walking barefoot. Concerned that the child may have been hypothermic, they immediately called the emergency services.

As police officials went to pick up the child, they received reports of an abandoned vehicle that had hit two parked cars.

Though they couldn’t find the driver, the car was found to be registered to the child’s mother.

When police phoned the mother and made the child speak to her, he allegedly recreated the scene of holding a steering wheel and made some “car noises”.

“We then realised that the child may have been the driver,” the police said on Instagram.

The father shortly arrived at the scene, after which the child was asked to show them how he started the car.

He demonstrated how he put the keys in the ignition, moved his left foot to the clutch and pressed the gas pedal.

It appeared that the child lost control of the car and crashed into two parked vehicles. He then exited the car and began walking on the street barefoot.

The child, described by his mother as “resourceful”, was later taken to the police station, where he was given hot chocolate and a teddy bear.

The police urged the mother to hide the car keys in future. “Fortunately, this mini driver’s adventure has come to an end with a sizzle,” the police said.