Dad: 9-year-old Las Vegas stowaway is troubled

Doug Stanglin | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Dad of 9-year-old stowaway: 'He's not a terrorist' The family of a 9-year-old boy who stowed away on a flight from Minneapolis to Las Vegas says they desperately need help dealing with his behavior. The boy's dad, who did not want to be identified, is stuck in a tough position.

The boy is in a foster home in Las Vegas but is expected home Friday

It was the 9-year-old%27s first time on a plane

He apparently sneaked down the jetway while a gate agent was distracted

The tearful father of a 9-year-old Minneapolis boy who sneaked aboard a flight to Las Vegas last week said Wednesday that his son has a history of behavioral problems, but that he feels powerless to rein him in.

The father, who did not want to be identified, wore a cap under a tightly drawn black hoodie to cover his face during a meeting with reporters. He was accompanied by V.J. Smith of the anti-violence group MAD DADs.

"I'm a parent. I'm not perfect. We assumed he was at a friend's house. We had no idea where he was," the distraught father said.

He said he has not spoken with his son, who is still being held in protective custody in a foster home in Las Vegas. Smith, acting as a family spokesman, told reporters that the boy is expected to be back in Minneapolis on Friday.

The father said he could not understand how the boy, who had never been on a plane before, could have gotten onto the Delta flight to Las Vegas from Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport without being seen.

He said his son had gone to take the trash out and instead jumped on a light-rail train to the airport.

The Star Tribune reports that the boy apparently blended in with a family with children to get through security. He was then seen on surveillance video chatting with a gate agent, then walking down the jetway and onto the plane when the agent was distracted.

The boy then sat in an empty seat until after the plane was airborne and flight attendants realized that his name was not on a flight manifest as an unaccompanied minor.

The Star Tribune says it obtained an e-mail from the area director of the county's Human Services and Public Health Department to administrators and County Board members that the boy had became "violent" and was hospitalized and eventually calmed down.

The father said his son had been suspended from school last month for fighting. He also acknowledged that the boy had recently stolen a delivery van from a local noodle warehouse and crashed it into a police cruiser in the town of Edina.

The father said he asked the officer who brought him home to accompany him into the house while he disciplined the boy.

"I said, 'Please, sir, can you go up with me and watch me whip his butt,'" the father told reporters. "The officer said, 'If I see you hit your son, I'm going to have to lock you up.'"

"What can I do?" the father, growing increasingly emotional, said to reporters. "If I whip my son, I get locked up. If I let him keep doing what he is doing, I get into trouble. Someone please, please help me."

The father said the boy's problems started when he was 5 years old but that he was not on any medication.

"I'm tired of people saying he's a minor, there's nothing we can do. There's something someone can do. I don't want him hurt. I miss my son. I want my son home," he said.

Asked if his son understood the seriousness of his actions in stealing a car, the father said his son had told police that "he thought he was playing (the video game) Grand Theft Auto."

"I didn't know what was going through my son's head," he said, regarding the stolen car incident. "I just hope and prayed that nobody got hurt and it could have been worse than it is and I thank God that it's not."

Smith told KARE-TV earlier that the family had been unable to get help in the past from social services.

"This family has been reaching out for help. They have been reaching out to agencies, reaching out to folks to get help, and you know from what I hear they have been told the crime isn't big enough," Smith told the TV station. 'He hasn't done anything bad enough for him to be put into our program.'"

Smith, who noted that the family had come to Minneapolis five years ago from Chicago, said that he had "watched the father sit here and cry because he is being a good father to his kids, but sometimes we have kids that get out of line a bit and we need other people to come in and help us."

In the stolen car incident, the officer was not injured, but the crash caused $5,888 in damage to the car, according to Edina police, the Star Tribune reports.