Three thrill-seeking kids are in big trouble after throwing a child-sized dummy in the middle of a road, hoping to “freak out” an unsuspecting motorist, police in North Carolina said.
Instead, a 33-year-old woman driving home from work said she saw what she thought was a person in the road and stopped, only to have two youngsters wearing hoodies try to get into her locked vehicle, the Carteret Sheriff’s Office said. Investigators described the incident as “an attempted carjacking.”
The distinction between childish prank and violent crime could be a big deal to the kids, ages 10, 14, and 17. Deputies rounded them up after the Sunday highway hooliganism, and said Thursday they confessed to what they thought was a stunt. The kids told investigators they hoped someone would run over the dummy and think it was a real person, the sheriff’s office said.
Detectives are consulting with the district attorney’s office on whether charges will be filed against the juveniles, the sheriff’s office said.
The motorist told deputies she saw what she thought was a person in the road at 1:30 a.m. and stopped her vehicle.
“As she got closer to the person, which turned out to be a dummy, two young white males wearing dark hoodies pulled on the door handles of her locked vehicle,” the sheriff’s office said in a release.
The woman drove away, which Chief Detective Jason Wank said was “absolutely the right thing to do.”
Responding deputies found the dummy. It was dressed in children’s clothing and had a fake plastic head.
