New York — For the sake of adventure, two “Vittle Irish waifs’” hitchhiked from their home in Dublin to London, and then hopped a plane to New York without a ticket or passport, police said Sunday.
“They were very resourceful,” airport police Sgt. Carl Harrison commented.
The two unidentified boys, age 10 and 13, told police they ran away from their homes in Dublin Thursday and hitchhiked to London by boat, train, bus, and car with little money in their pockets, then somehow boarded an Air India plane without passports or tickets and arrived at Kennedy Airport Saturday afternoon.
They were spotted by Officer Kenneth White “looking a little disheveled’” outside the international arrivals building about 5:30 p.m., Lt. Richard Richards said.
“They’re little Irish waifs. They were evasive in their answers to him and he became suspicious by their evasiveness and returned them to police in the building,” Richards said.
They finally opened up to Harrison and police immediately called Dublin officials and the boys’ parents to confirm the story. The parents told authorities the children had been missing since Thursday.
“The parents were obviously concerned,” Harrison said. “They said they loved their children and wanted them back.”
Police then turned them over to Air India and immigration officials for a flight back to Dublin late Sunday. Once back in Ireland, they will be met by Irish authorities, Harrison said.
Air India officials would not comment on the matter, saying only they were investigating the flight of the two youngsters.
Richards said the boys were not at all scared.
“They were cool about the whole thing,” he said. “I don’t want to say they’re chronic liars, but they have streetwise smarts that would put you and I to shame. In order to survive in Dublin, I guess that’s what you have to do.”
Why did they do it? “No significant reason,” said Harrison.
“T would think it would be adventuresome,” Richards said.
Article extracted from this publication >> August 23, 1985
