The Utah boy who stole his family car to drive to California and buy a Lamborghini had his wish granted by a kindhearted car enthusiast.
A day after Adrian Zamarripa, 5, was pulled over by a Utah state trooper on the freeway, Lamborghini Huracan owner Jeremy Neves pulled up outside his Ogden home.
Sitting in his mom’s lap in the passenger seat, Zamarripa, who turns six next month, enjoyed a ride in his dream car — the one he’d been headed to buy last week with just $3 in his pocket.
While the story may seem humorous now that everyone is safe, it wasn’t for Adrian’s parents when they found out he was missing.
“We thought he’d been kidnapped and we were all panicked,” his sister, Sidney, told the Washington Post.
“I called my mom at work and she came rushing home, crying,” she continued. “It never occurred to any of us that he would take off in the car by himself. How would he know how to do that?”
When Neves, 33, found out about Adrian’s story, he just had to meet him.
“Hey, I was 12 when I took my parents’ car,” he told the Post. “This kid is five? I couldn’t believe it. I thought, ‘This kid is ambitious and has no fear.'”
“Let’s not just focus on the bad,” he continued. “Let’s not miss the gift and the genius of this little boy. He was determined, willing to do whatever it took to go after his dream. You don’t want that dreaming to stop.”
The Zamarripa family aren’t facing any charges of negligence, authorities said on Friday, according to the Associated Press (AP).
Adrian’s teenage sister was watching him while his parents worked, and he swiped the keys while she was asleep in hopes of travelling to California to buy a Lamborghini, officials said.
Prosecutors reviewed the case but didn’t see any evidence of neglect, said Weber County Attorney Chris Allred.
“The kid just gave an older sibling the slip,” Allred said. “There was nothing criminal, no evidence of neglect.”
But he did acknowledge how “unusual” the case was, the Daily Herald says.
On May 4, Trooper Rick Morgan spotted a car drifting and only going 51 kilometres per hour on the freeway. Suspecting it was an impaired driver, he pulled the SUV over, only to find a child at the wheel.
“It absolutely was not what I was expecting,” he told Deseret News.
“Because he almost started to cry, I think the realization that something wasn’t quite right probably hit him,” Morgan said late Monday. “I do think he’s probably had a life’s lesson today.”
The boy was sitting on the edge of his seat to reach the brake pedal. He told the trooper he was going to California to buy a Lamborghini, then showed the officer his wallet carrying $3 in cash.
His parents picked him up not long after that.
— With files from the Associated Press
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