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Walter Nyamukondiwa Chinhoyi Bureau
A 13-year-old boy here stole a pirate taxi and drove for about 20 kilometres before it ran out of fuel. The teenager allegedly stole the vehicle, a Honda Fit, on Tuesday last week after finding it parked in an alley awaiting its turn to pick-up passengers at the illegal Orange Grove-Mzari pick-up point.

He was in the company of two other boys. It is alleged that the boy used keys for another Honda Fit to start the engine, as the car’s ignition had been tampered with and can now be started with any similar model key. The boys allegedly took the less commonly used Mzari Road and connected into Machamire Road to evade the police. Their luck ran out when the vehicle stalled after running out of fuel in Alaska.

Passers-by became suspicious after seeing the boys’ ages and alerted the police. This led to the arrest of the teenage boy, while the other two managed to escape. The boy has since been taken to Kadoma Training Institute for safekeeping while awaiting the authority to prosecute him from the Attorney-General’s Office and the probation officer’s report. Upon questioning, the boy said he wanted to use the vehicle to pirate and earn some money. Investigations are still underway, with preliminary information showing that boy had several brushes with the law in the past.