A 7-YEAR-OLD boy has been charged with grand theft auto after stealing his grandmother’s SUV so he could “take it on a high speed chase.”

Latarian Milton grabbed his grandmother’s car keys while she was not looking, before backing the truck out of her driveway and taking it on an eight-minute joyride.

The boy hit four cars, two in a supermarket car park and two moving vehicles on a busy street in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, as well as post boxes and signposts before crashing into a ditch.

The force of the final impact made the vehicle’s front right wheel break off, police said, but no one, including the boy, was hurt during the incident.

Vikkita Stratford, Latarian’s grandmother who he lives with, said when she saw her keys had gone, “I just thought, oh my God, I’m getting ready to bury my grandson.”

She told a local television station she immediately called the police, who gave chase to her Dodge Durango.

When asked why he took the car, Latarian said: “I took it for a high speed chase.”

He said he learned how to drive from watching his grandmother and others behind the wheel. The grandmother said the boy was “nobody’s fool” and understood the severity of what he had done.

Ellen Lovejoy, a police spokesman, said the boy was unlikely to be prosecuted but the charges would help get him “into the system” so he could receive appropriate treatment.

She said the joyride, which could easily have resulted in “injuries or death”, was “unusual behavior for a 7-year-old.”(SD-Agencies)