COLUMBUS, Ohio — A 17-year-old who has been caught by police repeatedly stealing cars had his first hearing in court Friday afternoon.
The teen’s parents, Tiffany Hammons and Akie Benjamin Sr., were also in court to ask the judge to keep their son behind bars.
The judge granted the juvenile’s request to waive his appearance in court. He is being held in custody after being caught by police sitting in the driver’s seat of a stolen vehicle and attempting to run away from the scene before police caught him and took him into custody.
This arrest comes just one week after the teen was accidentally shot by another juvenile while sitting in a stolen vehicle.
10TV previously spoke with the teen’s mother, who has been pleading with officers to stop bringing her son home after he was caught stealing and sometimes crashing cars.
The teen is now facing three charges stemming from three separate incidents over the past two weeks. Each incident involved stolen Hyundai’s.
Benjamin Sr. told the judge why they wanted their son to remain in custody.
"This is a repeated process. Every time we get him back home, he runs away, we get him back home, he stays for a day or two, then he runs away again… I don't know what the fascination or whatever it is, I want this out of my son's system before he returns home,” Benjamin Sr. said.
Between January and August of this year, 7,330 cars were stolen in the city of Columbus. A little more than half of them have been Kias and Hyundais.
The teen will remain in custody until his next court date on Oct. 11.