Police nab 12-year-old boy 1,000 km into drive across Australia

Police in Australia pulled over a 12-year-old boy as he attempted an epic 3,000 km cross-country journey.

The boy was over 1,000 km into his trip when police noticed the car’s bumper dragging on the ground, according to 9 News.

“Officers from Broken Hill Highway Patrol stopped a motor vehicle on the Barrier Highway due to defects which made the vehicle hazardous,” police said in a statement, according to Fox News Australia.

“Checks revealed the driver to be a 12-year-old boy [who] was travelling from Kendall NSW on his way to Perth,” police said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "Checks revealed the driver to be a 12-year-old boy [who] was travelling from Kendall NSW on his way to Perth," police said.

The boy was stopped in Broken Hill, about 1,000 km from his starting point, although he was just a third of the way to his destination, Perth — which is located on the opposite end of the country.

The trip was scheduled to take about 40 hours and would have gone through the desert of Nullarbor Plain. The highway is “famous for its unbending trajectory through the barren scrubland,” according to 9 News.

Drivers are warned to “carry extra petrol and plenty of water and food.”

The state police are still looking into how the boy acquired the car and how he managed to avoid detection during his journey.