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14 year old aspie flies commercial for a hook up!

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Merle
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05 Oct 2009, 7:05 pm

http://cbs2chicago.com/watercooler/aspe ... 28600.html

Quote:
A teenage boy with Asperger's syndrome is back home in Oregon after getting on a plane and flying to Chicago without his parents ever finding out.

Dakota Davis, 14, suffers from Asperger's syndrome, a high-functioning form of autism. He used his mother's credit card to buy an airline ticket on the Internet. He also used the credit card information to catch a ground shuttle to the Portland Airport, then get an electronic ticket and boarding pass to a United Airlines flight to Chicago, reported CBS affiliate KOIN-TV, Portland.

The tickets said the name of his adoptive mother, Virginia Davis, but Transportation Security Administration screeners let Dakota on the plane anyway, KOIN reported.

Police reported the boy as a repeat runaway on Saturday; he had escaped for a whole night a week earlier after being dropped off at an Oregon City movie theater. Technicians at AT&T found Dakota's cell phone, with the help of Dakota's sister, KOIN reported.

"She said, 'Mom, sit down. The GPS is circling O'Hare International Airport in Chicago,'" Virginia Davis said.

The technicians also discovered text messages that Dakota had been sending to a female friend, whom he apparently hoped to visit in Chicago. But Chicago Police found Dakota at baggage claim, and sent him home on another flight. He was back in Portland by late Saturday night, KOIN reported.

Dakota's mother and sister are shocked that Dakota got so far without any authorities taking notice.

"How in the world could he get on there by himself?" Virginia Davis said.

A minor does not need an ID to get through the gate.


Why post this in Love and Dating?

Quote:
Clackamas County deputies believe he went to Chicago to meet with a teenage girl whom he had been talking with via text message.


Looks like another Aspie makes a connection!



Tias
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06 Oct 2009, 6:22 pm

i'm still amazed(well ok, not really) that he got so far indeed, without anyone stopping him at all.

And that kid, i dont know if i should laugh at him, or feel sorry for him, he is 14 years old, hell, who knows if it really was a girl o.o

But i must say, i like his um, hmmm "will to act" 8)
14 and hasthe courage to take such a journy, haha xD



Aspie1
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07 Oct 2009, 2:34 pm

I'm probably going to get some disapproval from the parents reading this, but I actually rooted for the 14-year-old guy in the story. I wanted him to at least get to meet the girl before being picked up by the police. Look at it this way. He met a girl (online, presumably) all on his own, and managed to arrange a meeting, which means she liked him enough to meet him. Then, he beat the odds of living thousands of miles away from each other, as well as other obstacles that could prevent the meeting. He was able to obtain a plane ticket (he had no choice other than to use his mother's credit card, since you can't buy a ticket without it nowadays), fly out to Chicago all on his own, and navigate a strange city, all in the name of what he wanted: a date with a girl he liked. But most importantly, despite being an aspie (and supposedly naive as a result), he was able to get that far, completely undetected. He wasn't thwarted by authorities until he got to the baggage claim in Chicago, and only because he didn't have the foresight to only use a carry-on. At age 14, even I didn't have the social smarts to pull that off, and my AS is fairly mild.

I'm wondering at this point about the girl he planned to meet, since we never heard her side of the story. Was she going to meet him in the airport? Was she planning on him taking a train or bus to another area of Chicago (there's a train line going directly to O'Hare). Or was she not going to show up at all and play with his feelings instead? If the date did go as planned, would he fly back the same day? Or would he spend the night with her :wink:, and go back the next morning? We may never know. Even if she didn't plan to show up, I can't help but admire the guy's ambition and dedication to doing what he planned. Yeah, he might have planned it all because he was desperate for a date, which is a shame he got stopped before meeting her.



Janissy
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07 Oct 2009, 3:03 pm

Aspie1 wrote:
I'm probably going to get some disapproval from the parents reading this, but I actually rooted for the 14-year-old guy in the story. I wanted him to at least get to meet the girl before being picked up by the police. Look at it this way. He met a girl (online, presumably) all on his own, and managed to arrange a meeting, which means she liked him enough to meet him. Then, he beat the odds of living thousands of miles away from each other, as well as other obstacles that could prevent the meeting. He was able to obtain a plane ticket (he had no choice other than to use his mother's credit card, since you can't buy a ticket without it nowadays), fly out to Chicago all on his own, and navigate a strange city, all in the name of what he wanted: a date with a girl he liked. But most importantly, despite being an aspie (and supposedly naive as a result), he was able to get that far, completely undetected. He wasn't thwarted by authorities until he got to the baggage claim in Chicago, and only because he didn't have the foresight to only use a carry-on. At age 14, even I didn't have the social smarts to pull that off, and my AS is fairly mild.

I'm wondering at this point about the girl he planned to meet, since we never heard her side of the story. Was she going to meet him in the airport? Was she planning on him taking a train or bus to another area of Chicago (there's a train line going directly to O'Hare). Or was she not going to show up at all and play with his feelings instead? If the date did go as planned, would he fly back the same day? Or would he spend the night with her :wink:, and go back the next morning? We may never know. Even if she didn't plan to show up, I can't help but admire the guy's ambition and dedication to doing what he planned. Yeah, he might have planned it all because he was desperate for a date, which is a shame he got stopped before meeting her.



As a parent I'm guessing his parents were equal parts furious and proud. Furious because they probably thought he'd been abducted and quite possibly he could have been. (It could just as easily have been a "girl" who was actually a man looking to abduct him.) And I'm sure they yelled this at him till their throats were sore about just that. And I'm sure that after the fury wore off at being scared half to death they were secretly thrilled at proof that yes he COULD navigate the world on his own despite what the school system and his doctors had probably been telling them in endless meetings. (Just a guess, it's what schools and doctors do.) Being proud of a child and furious both at the same time is a complex feeling that does happen to parents when they discover their child is far more capable than anyone ever dreamed but chose such an aggravating way to show it.