09/10/2013 09:29
Stowaway's dad: He's no angel
That 9-year-old Minnesota boy who slipped through security and hopped a flight to Las Vegas is no stranger to child protection investigators, who say he has a history of sneaking into a water park and was recently arrested after allegedly stealing a car, according to an e-mail obtained by the Minneapolis Star Tribune, CNN reported.
And it turns out that his mother works at the airport where he began his journey, a source close to the situation said.
The boy's father told CNN affiliate WCCO that his son has had issues in the past.
"I don't have an angel, OK. I have a 9-year-old," he said. "To me, he's got a behavioral problem."
The father, who WCCO did not identify, said the family has been unsuccessfully trying to get help for his son for years.
The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported that Janine Moore, area director of the Hennepin County Human Services and Public Health Department, wrote in an e-mail to agency administrators and County Board members of the boy's "pattern of behavior," which has included hanging out at a Bloomington, Minnesota, water park and blending in with a large family to slip through without paying.
She describes him as a "challenging" child, according to the Star Tribune.
The newspaper reported that there is an investigation into whether the boy's mother, who works at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, helped him fly to Las Vegas. The newspaper did not report who was conducting that investigation.
The boy's father told WCCO that his wife reported their son missing on Thursday morning -- a day after they last saw him, leaving the house to take out the trash.
"We're not bad parents. We didn't think nothin' of it," the father said. "We thought he was at his friend's house."
The father said he never expected his son would take the light rail from their North Minneapolis neighborhood to the airport and sneak onto an airplane.
"I don't understand," he said. "You've got so (many) security checks at these airports. How can you let a 9-year-old sneak past security, get on the plane, without anyone stopping him, questioning him or anything?"