North Attleboro Police, Outdistanced in Wild 22-Mile Jaunt, Finally Chance Upon Him and Pal, 9
Norwood and North Attleboro police were left stunned in June 1929 after a 10‑year‑old boy from Norwood led officers on a wild, 22‑mile nighttime chase in a stolen automobile — a joyride that quickly escalated into one of the most astonishing juvenile cases the region had ever seen.
The adventure began early in the evening when Norwood police received a series of complaints that several garages had been broken into. Officers soon discovered that three garages had been entered, with automobile keys and a bicycle stolen from one, while another bicycle had been taken from a porch on Lincoln Street. Investigators later determined that the culprits were Curtis O. Nordstrom, age 10, of 30 Oolah Avenue, and his friend Joseph Antonelli, age 9, of 21 Tremont Street.
The boys allegedly rode the stolen bicycles only briefly before abandoning them on Lincoln Street in favor of something far more dangerous: a new roadster parked nearby. Somehow, the two managed to start the vehicle and began driving around Norwood before heading south onto the Providence Turnpike, passing through Walpole and Wrentham under cover of darkness.
By this time, Norwood Police Chief William Sullivan had alerted surrounding departments to be on the lookout for the young fugitives. Officers in North Attleboro soon spotted the stolen car and attempted to stop it — but the boys responded by stepping on the gas, accelerating away from the pursuing cruiser. The police commandeered a taxicab to give chase, but the cab was quickly outdistanced, and the officers eventually lost sight of the speeding roadster entirely.
Unsure whether the boys had fled the area or abandoned the car, North Attleboro police began combing nearby roads. Their persistence paid off when they came upon the pair walking along the roadside shortly after 1 a.m. At first, the boys denied any involvement with the stolen vehicle, but under questioning they eventually confessed and revealed that they had ditched the car in a nearby sandpit.
Norwood authorities were notified, and Chief Sullivan traveled to Attleboro to retrieve the boys. The chief was particularly astonished by how young Nordstrom — “scarcely over three feet tall,” as the report noted — had managed to operate the automobile at all. When asked how he reached the pedals, the boy explained matter‑of‑factly that he had driven while standing up at the wheel. How he managed to keep the car on the road for 22 miles remained a mystery even to seasoned officers.
Both boys were scheduled to be arraigned in Juvenile Court on Thursday, where the extraordinary case of two elementary‑school‑aged motorists would be examined in full.
Source: The Norwood Messenger
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