Mother whose 8-year-old drove car to Target speaks: ‘It was very stressful’

Eight-year-old Zoe made national headlines in September after she managed to drive her mother ’s car to a Target store in Bainbridge, Ohio. And though police eventually found her unscathed and safe, her mother, Tangie Wilson, told The New York Times that she has yet to mentally process the September 15 incident.

Tangie also provided details on what made her daughter drive to the Target store by herself. “I still haven’t had time to process it mentally,” she said. “It was very stressful, very exhausting — mentally, physically, emotionally.”

“I could not sleep because it all started with [Zoe] leaving the house when I was asleep. It was like someone snatched the rug from under my feet,” she added. “And it was just all these questions — everybody wanted to know who this little girl was and how did she do it.”

Tangie said an argument between Zoe and her big sister on the eve of the incident had left her 8-year-old daughter upset. She said Zoe ended up going out with her car the following morning, adding that the minor went on the drive with their family dog.

Zoe is said to have made up her mind about the trip the night prior, though she had not decided on her actual destination. She ultimately drove to the Target store because her iPad screen cracked when she drove out of the house .

Tangie later became aware of Zoe’s absence after her other daughter informed her that her sister as well as their dog and the car were nowhere to be found. “She never has done any of this before, so it still was not registering that she left with the dog,” Tangie said.

Tangie also told The New York Times that Zoe had never driven a car before. She said the closest the minor had come to that was riding a go-kart or being seated on her grandfather ’s lap when she was a baby.

Zoe was eventually found after the police as well as her family and friends searched for her. Tangie said her daughter “walked out of the store so normal, like nothing happened” at the time she was found. “Her response was like, ‘I only hit a mailbox and it was green,'” she recalled.

Despite the seriousness of what occurred, Tangie said she uses her daughter’s experience to guide her when the minor experiences any setbacks when she’s doing schoolwork.

“[Zoe] was like, ‘I’m worried because we’re doing multiplication, and multiplication is hard,’ ” Tangie said. “And I’m like, ‘Zoe, did you know how to drive a car before you drove the car the other day?’ And she was like, ‘No’ “

“And I was like, ‘OK, so just like that with multiplication, you don’t know how to do it but you’re going to learn.’ So that has encouraged her a lot as far as her schoolwork,” she stated.

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