A 12-year-old Virginia boy recently decided to take a day off from school a la Ferris Bueller. However, instead of zooming around in a vintage Ferrari, he drove his dad’s last-generation Ford F-150.
He ended up driving it 300 miles south into South Carolina’s Marion County before getting pulled over for erratic driving by South Carolina Highway Patrol.
Not only did the authorities find the young middle school-skipper in a truck that clearly didn’t belong to him, but they discovered two guns in the pickup with him. The video below doesn’t make the source of the guns clear. They could’ve belonged to the boy’s father and already been in the F-150. Perhaps the kid did take them from his parents’ house and even intended to do something harmful with them. Either way, it’s good news to hear that no one got hurt.
After the young man was stopped, he was taken to a juvenile detention center. He’ll probably be a hit with his fellow attendees after he tells them this crazy story, which makes me wonder: How old were you when you first drove a Ford F-150?
Derek Shiekhi's father raised him on cars. As a boy, Derek accompanied his dad as he bought classics such as post-WWII GM trucks and early Ford Mustang convertibles.
After loving cars for years and getting a bachelor's degree in Business Management, Derek decided to get an associate degree in journalism. His networking put him in contact with the editor of the Austin-American Statesman newspaper, who hired him to write freelance about automotive culture and events in Austin, Texas in 2013. One particular story led to him getting a certificate for learning the foundations of road racing.
While watching TV with his parents one fateful evening, he saw a commercial that changed his life. In it, Jeep touted the Wrangler as the Texas Auto Writers Association's "SUV of Texas." Derek knew he had to join the organization if he was going to advance as an automotive writer. He joined the Texas Auto Writers Association (TAWA) in 2014 and was fortunate to meet several nice people who connected him to the representatives of several automakers and the people who could give him access to press vehicles (the first one he ever got the keys to was a Lexus LX 570). He's now a regular at TAWA's two main events: the Texas Auto Roundup in the spring and the Texas Truck Rodeo in the fall.
Over the past several years, Derek has learned how to drive off-road in various four-wheel-drive SUVs (he even camped out for two nights in a Land Rover), and driven around various tracks in hot hatches, muscle cars, and exotics. Several of his pieces, including his article about the 2015 Ford F-150 being crowned TAWA's 2014 "Truck of Texas" and his review of the Alfa Romeo 4C Spider, have won awards in TAWA's annual Excellence in Craft Competition. Last year, his JK Forum profile of Wagonmaster, a business that restores Jeep Wagoneers, won prizes in TAWA’s signature writing contest and its pickup- and SUV-focused Texas Truck Invitational.
