A good rule of thumb: Always protect your kids online. Monitor who they're talking to. Make sure they're safe.
Another rule of thumb: Make sure you know what they're doing with your car.
A 12-year-old Florida girl stole her father's car and picked up her 14-year-old friend to meet an online predator in Louisiana, officials said this weekend.
Baby-faced Jade Gregory, of Union County, was reported missing last week after she hopped behind the wheel of her parent's Ford Taurus, went to meet her pal, Khloe Larson, then drove out of state.
I'm just gonna wonder aloud: How the heck do two girls manage to pilot a Ford Taurus? Did Ms. Gregory tie a box around her foot?
Or did one of them provide navigation while the other worked the wheel and pedals?
Joking aside, it's of course deeply troubling when children take off in this manner, especially when it's to purportedly meet a stranger online. No good. (The FBI is looking into the identity of the person they were allegedly going to meet.)
Thankfully, widespread missing children's reports led to the safe return of the two girls, though not in the way you might think:
The girls were later shocked to see their images on a television in an Alabama convenience store — and eventually decided to turn themselves into local police.
