Rowan officials said a 12-year-old runaway from Nazareth Children’s Home is accused of breaking into a building, stealing a golf cart, taking it on a joyride and crashing it.
The pre-teen had been reported earlier in the day as a runaway and had been spotted at the East Rowan YMCA just after midnight Monday on the golf cart that belonged to Nazareth Children’s Home. The Post is not naming the juvenile because officials cannot release his name.
Investigators said someone broke into a storage building using a large cinder block, took the golf cart and the keys. Officials said that someone also used white paint that was inside the storage building and painted the golf cart.
“The staff chased him,” said Sheriff’s Capt. John Sifford.
The child struck a tree at Crescent and Red roads and ran from the scene. A Rowan Sheriff’s deputy assisted in the search for him and he was found shortly thereafter, banging on the back door of a building on the Nazareth campus begging the others inside to let him in, a report said.
He told deputies he ran away because he was “bored and needed to entertain himself,” Sifford said.
He will be charged with felony breaking and entering, felony larceny after breaking and entering and misdemeanor vandalism.
Contact reporter Shavonne Potts at 704-797-4253.