Four New Mexico girls are facing charges after police say were drinking while out joyriding, and they’re all under the age of 14.
ABC 7 reports that according to Alamogordo police, officers noticed a car driving erratically earlier this month, but when they tried to pull the car over, the driver took off speeding, leading them on a high speed chase. The driver eventually lost control and crashed into a street sign off of U.S. 54 in Alamogordo, resulting in the car’s windshield smashing out.
The officers noticed four young girls in the car, and all of them smelled like alcohol. The driver admitted she was 12 years old and her three friends were between the ages of 12 and 13, according to police.
“There’s a lot of mixed emotions with it because we don’t know the situation, the dynamics at home,” Police Chief Brian Peete said. “Grateful that no one was hurt, no one was injured, but how do we move forward in trying to get these things from happening again? How can we become more involved?”
Inside the car, police reportedly found a Smirnoff drink and hard iced teas.
All four children were charged with underage drinking, while the driver faces an additional charge of driving while intoxicated.
The driver allegedly admitted that she waited until her grandfather fell asleep, then took his car without his knowledge. She then reportedly picked up two friends in Tularosa and a third friend in Alamogordo.
None of the girls were injured in the incident, but Peete added that the girls were lucky that the situation didn’t end up fatal.
“For young folks to get ahold of A) alcohol, and then B) a vehicle, and then adding them both together, normally this situation is very…often it doesn’t work out as well as it did in this case.”
[Feature Photo: Pixabay]
