12-year-old boy uses family credit card to fly to Bali after argument with mother
Boy had researched airlines which allow passengers to travel without letter from parents
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Your support makes all the difference.An Australian family were left terrified when their son was reported missing, only for it to transpire that he had stolen the family credit card and travelled alone to Bali.
As reported in 9 News, 12-year-old Drew* had a heated argument with his parents.
“He doesn’t like the word ‘no’,” his mother said.
He subsequently told them he was going to school. However, Drew had actually stolen the family credit cards and, after tricking his grandmother into giving him his passport, travelled alone to Bali. He was able to do so having researched Australian airlines which allow minors to travel with only a student ID and passport, rather than requiring a letter from a parent or guardian.
The boy took a train to Sydney airport and was able to check in at the self-service stations and get through security before waiting to board a flight to Perth, from where he caught a connecting flight to Denpasar in Bali.
“I sort of stuffed up because I got the deal cheap,” he told 9 News, adding that he was never asked why he was alone. “They just asked for my student ID and passport to prove I’m over 12 and that I’m in secondary school.”
Meanwhile, Drew’s mother Emma had reported her son missing after discovering he never made it to school.
Prior to reaching Bali, Drew had booked himself into an All Seasons hotel. Upon arrival, he told staff his sister would be joining him later, convincing them to let him check in early.
Speaking to Australia’s A Current Affair, Emma described how it felt when she realised that her son had managed to leave the country.
“Shocked, disgusted. There’s no emotion to feel what we felt when we discovered that he had left overseas,” she said.
After discovering that he had travelled abroad, Emma went to Bali to retrieve Drew. He ultimately spent four days alone in the country.
“It was great,” he told A Current Affair. “Because I wanted to go on an adventure.”
Drew is far from the first child to fool airline authorities in order to travel alone. In November 2017, a seven-year-old girl managed to travel by herself to Geneva Airport, where she slipped through security and boarded an easyJet flight to Corsica.
Crew correctly identified that she was not supposed to be on the plane and she was handed over to police to be returned to her parents.
*names have been changed
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