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Florida has a knack of bringing out the best in people.
Take the Sikkenga family from Gillete, Wyoming. In all-American fashion, 31-year-old Nathan Sikkenga had driven his wife and 9-year-old son cross-country to see Disney World.
But the ‘rents were on vacation too. And when they got sloshed, they handed the minivan keys to their kid — who promptly crashed.
According to the Orlando Sentinel, the prepubescent designated driver crashed into a security gate just before midnight on Saturday.
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An Orange County Sheriff’s deputy saw the minor’s mishap and arrested his dad. The elder Sikkenga was charged with third-degree child endangerment, a felony.
It’s not the first time parents have dumped unwanted responsibility on their kids here in Florida. In March, a Port St. Lucie woman was charged with child abuse after making her 10-year-old daughter the DD. The girl hit three cars and a house.
And in July, Apollo Beach resident Donald Leet was similarly charged after drinking wine and deciding to give his girlfriend’s 11-year-old daughter “driving lessons.”
“You are going to make me lose my job,” Leet told deputies as they arrested him. “Why don’t you arrest a rapist or murderer instead of me. You’re an illiterate Southerner. You don’t know anything. You only have a high school diploma. You’re dumb.”
To be fair, it’s not just a Florida problem.
Earlier this month, cops pulled over a wood-paneled van in Detroit. When Detective Lt. Robert Grant looked inside the car, he found a 9-year-old girl sitting on top of child’s booster seat. Her whiskey-breathed father was in the back.
“What did you stop me for?” the girl asked. “I was driving good.”
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