A nine-year-old boy in the United States got behind the wheel of his mother’s car and drove to school, leading the police on an “erratic chase” which ended when he crashed into a police cruiser, an incident the authorities described as a “scene straight out of a movie”.

The incident took place on the morning of March 27 in the city of Orville, California, when officers from the California Highway Patrol (CHP) noticed a gray Volkswagen sedan that had “stopped oddly” in the middle of an intersection.

“When instructed to move, the vehicle unexpectedly sped off, leading to a short and erratic chase that ended in a dirt parking lot just east of Plumas Avenue Elementary School,” the CHP said in a Facebook post.

After coming to a stop, the boy reversed the car and rammed into an officer’s patrol car, according to the CHP.

Luckily, no one was injured and both vehicles only had minor damages.

However, officers were shocked to discover that the driver was a “wide-eyed nine-year-old child” who had taken his mother’s car with the intention of driving himself to school.

“We are relieved to report that no one was injured in this incident. The child was safely sent to school after the necessary authorities were alerted and the situation was documented,” the CHP added.

Officer Terry Dunn from the CHP said everyone was “shocked”.

“It was one of those ‘no one really believed it’ kind of things. So several other officers showed up to the scene just to see, in fact, that it was a nine-year-old driving the vehicle,” he told broadcaster ABC News.

Mr Dunn said after the car the boy was driving rammed his vehicle, he noticed “a little head bobbin’ inside”, which he described as “unusual”.

“I exited my patrol vehicle, made an approach, and as I was approaching, I could see a kid, which turned out to be a nine-year-old child sticking his head out saying, ‘I’m sorry, I was trying to get to school,’” ABC quoted Mr Dunn as saying.

The boy’s grandmother said the child “was impatient” to go to school, and that the family had a morning of “pure panic” when they discovered he had disappeared, together with the car and keys to the vehicle.

The grandmother, who was not named, told local broadcaster CBS13 that they initially thought he had been kidnapped and that they found it hard to believe he had actually driven the car.

Still, she said the family has reprimanded him, and the child has repeatedly apologised for his actions.

This is not the first time children have taken vehicles for a joyride.

In Singapore in April 2023, a 12-year-old boy assisted the police in an investigation into a stolen bus owned by private bus operator A&S Transit.

A month later, a six-year-old boy on the Malaysian resort island of Langkawi crashed his parents’ car after sneaking out of the house with his younger brother to buy a toy car at a nearby shop.