ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla.-- Two local boys are in big trouble after stealing a car and crashing it into another vehicle.
Police say a 12-year-old stole a Nissan Pathfinder with his 14-year old passenger on North Orange Street in St. Augustine, then drove west on Highway 207. Police attempted to stop the vehicle there, but the boys sped away, made a sharp turn onto Holmes Boulevard, and crashed into a Volkswagen.
The crash stopped just short of Gail Keeny's front yard. She says she feels lucky the boys didn't take out her home.
"If it hadn't stopped, he would have come through my fence and hit my car," she said. "I heard the bang and then I heard the cops, the sirens, and that's when I got up and come to the door and they were already getting out of the car and the smoke was coming up pretty far."
Nobody was seriously injured, but Keeny says the boys, who were questioned in her front yard, appeared to be shaken.
"They were very scared. You could see in their face," she said.
FHP tells Action News the boys face grand theft and careless driving charges.
"It's a very serious issue and something we're not going to be more lenient on just because they're juveniles," said Sgt. Dylan Bryan, public information officer with FHP.
As for Keeny, she's just happy nobody was hurt and hopes it's not too late for the boys to turn their lives around.
"I hope they learned a lesson," she said.
Both boys were booked into Jacksonville's Juvenile Detention Center.
