13-year-old flies to Maui on Mom's credit card NORMANDY PARK, Wash. (AP) =97 It was a very short trip to paradise: from=20 Seattle-Tacoma International Airport to Maui and back in less than a day.=20 The enterprising 13-year-old from this south King County community would=20 have stayed longer, but it wasn't his call =97 especially once police got=20 involved. The boy, whose name has not been disclosed, managed to charge the= =20 airline ticket to his mother's credit card online =97 and got himself to the= =20 airport and aboard the flight to Hawaii. But he let his mom know where he=20 was going at her expense, so a Maui County officer met him on arrival last= =20 week. The boy was booked on a return flight, and was back home before=20 midnight. Aloha, indeed. "He expected to get a flower in his ear. Instead,= =20 he got a ride in a police car," Normandy Park police Chief Rick Kieffer= said. The boy's mother, whom Kieffer did not identify, realized her son was=20 missing June 11. After reading his note, she checked their home computer,=20 which showed he had ordered a plane ticket to Hawaii. "He got mom's credit= =20 card and punched it in," Kieffer said. The family lives just over 2 miles=20 from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, not a long walk for a=20 13-year-old. But the boy reportedly had only his school identification,=20 which has no photo, so police are puzzled as to how =97 in these days of=20 greatly tightened airport security =97 he managed to get aboard the plane.= "I=20 just can't believe (the airline) would do that," Kieffer said. Hawaiian Airlines spokesman Keoni Wagner confirmed the boy flew on one of=20 Hawaiian's planes =97 a not uncommon flight for an unaccompanied minor, he= =20 said. "He was a ticketed passenger," Wagner said, and had ID, though he was= =20 not sure the ID had a photo. Like most airlines, he said, Hawaiian has an=20 unaccompanied-minor program that caters to kids up to age 12. Passengers=20 between 12 and 18 are considered "young travelers" who do not need=20 supervision on board. Parents who wish to pay for optional supervision can= =20 do so, but no such arrangement was made for this boy. "It was not an=20 unusual transaction for us," Wagner said. His mother told KING-TV she had=20 sentenced him to "two years of yard work" to cover the cost of his ticket.= =20 "We had a happy ending, from the police side of it," Kieffer said. "How Mom= =20 felt about it might be different." The case demonstrates what=20 computer-savvy children can do in their rooms at home, he said. "You=20 definitely need to know what your kids are doing." *************************************************** The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site/TnTisland.com Roj (Roger James) escape email mailto:ejames@xxxxxxxxx Trinbago site: www.tntisland.com Carib Brass Ctn site www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ Steel Expressions www.mts.net/~ejames/se/ Mas Site: www.tntisland.com/tntrecords/mas2003/ Site of the Week: http://www.carib-link.net/naparima/naps.html TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************