13 year old steals mesa cop car!!! Original Article Teen thief joy rides in Mesa police car By Mike Branom, Tribune November 30, 2005 Thirteen-year-old Brandon McDaniel wants to be a policeman when he grows up. Mesa officials wish he hadnt borrowed one of their patrol cars for an impromptu training session. McDaniel fled a juvenile counseling center, jumped a fence surrounding Mesa Police Departments parking lot and stole a police car for a joy ride early Tuesday, police said. After two hours, the Fountain Hills teen called 911 and turned himself in. "I was at the detention thing and, um, I snuck out and I stole a police car," he told the 911 operator. Minutes later, McDaniel was arrested in a fast-food restaurant parking lot at Lindsay Road and Main Street. He was booked into the Maricopa County Southeast Juvenile Detention Center on suspicion of auto theft, burglary and curfew violations. Although the incident ended harmlessly, Mesa police spokesman Sgt. Chuck Trapani said authorities were alarmed by the idea that the patrol car in the hands of someone else could have been used in a plot against President Bush, who was spending the night at an east Phoenix hotel after a fundraising appearance. The incident began around 10 p.m. Monday, when McDaniels mother brought the teen to Mayfield Youth Alternative Center. Mayfield serves as a crisis intervention program where minors can stay for up to 23 hours, director of youth services Jesse Eller said. McDaniel went to bed, but when a headcount was conducted around 11:30 p.m., he was missing. Eller said he believes McDaniel left through a bathroom window. While Mayfield staffers contacted police and McDaniels mother, the teen walked about a mile, came across the police department in the 100 block of North Robson, then climbed a fence to get into the parking lot. There, he found a 2004 Ford Crown Victoria with keys in the ignition because an officer had left them there while he went inside to write a report. At 11:45 p.m., the officer returned to the parking lot and discovered his car missing. McDaniel told authorities he drove for about three hours through Tempe and Mesa, listening to the search for the cruiser until the radio was remotely disconnected. Not long after, he used the officers cell phone to call 911. Contact Mike Branom by email, or phone (480) 898-6536