Young airline runaway gets probation

TACOMA – A young boy who stole a car, led police on a high-speed chase and the next day talked his way onto two Southwest Airlines flights has a chance to keep his record clean and stay out of juvenile detention, thanks to a judge who gave him probation this week.

Pierce County Superior Court Judge John McCarthy on Wednesday found Semaj Booker, now 10, guilty of second-degree car theft, attempting to elude police and driving without a license in connection with his January antics. But if Booker puts in his best effort at school, pays back the woman whose car he stole, doesn’t get behind the wheel for the next year, his conviction will be vacated.