'Street Smart' Boy Hops on Flight to Las Vegas Alone "without tickets"

A "very street smart" nine-year-old boy
managed to pass through a security
checkpoint at a Minnesota airport and hop
on a flight to Las Vegas without a boarding
pass, authorities said.
The boy arrived alone at Minneapolis-St.
Paul International Airport on Thursday
morning, airport spokesman Patrick Hogan
told ABC News.
He was screened by TSA officials and then
headed to an airport concourse, where he
boarded an 11:15 a.m. flight on Delta to Sin
City.
The flight crew became suspicious of the
nine-year-old's travel circumstances and
called the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police,
who took the boy into custody upon
landing, Hogan said. He was then
transferred into the care of child protective
services.
"The fact that the child's actions weren't
detected until he was in flight is
concerning," he said. "More than 33 million
people travel through Minneapolis-St. Paul
International Airport every year, and I don't
know of another instance in my 13 years at
the airport in which anything similar has
happened.
"Fortunately, the flight crew took
appropriate actions to ensure the child's
safety, so the story does have a good
ending," Hogan said.
Las Vegas Metropolitan Police spokesman
Bill Cassell told ABC News the boy was
"more worldly than most nine-year-old
kids."
"He was able to get onto an airline where
he didn't have a ticket and made it five
states across the U.S.," he said. "If it hadn't
been for alert airline employees on our
end, he probably never would have been
discovered."
Cassell did not know if the boy had been
reunited with his family, but said that the
boy's mother, child protective services and
Delta Airlines were working to develop a
plan to bring him home after the incident
occurred.
A spokesman for Delta Airlines said the
incident was under investigation, but would
not elaborate on the details of the case.