Autistic Boy, 13, Drives Solo to Airport, Flies Across US

A 13-year-old Florida boy with autism was found in San Jose, Calif., last night after driving himself to the airport and, apparently without identification or a credit card, getting on a cross-country flight, the Palm Beach Post reports. Kenton Weaver—who had never before driven—has Asperger’s Syndrome and is so obsessed with flying that he tried twice before to hitch rides to the airport.

Weaver’s parents were aware of his burning desire to fly; his father awoke yesterday at 6am to find the family Explorer gone. “He’ll do anything to go to an airport,” Dean Weaver says. “I was so afraid he was going to hit someone else with the car.” The SUV was found, undamaged, at Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International; Kenton Weaver is staying with relatives in the Bay Area—near where his mother lives—for now. (More Florida stories.)