Occurred Monday, September 24, 2012, 00:13, 5300 Richter Street, Possession of Marijuana, Curfew Violations 1209240003

                A 14-year-old girl was caught by Corpus Christi Police as she drove a car at midnight with a 12-year-old boy and 8-year-old girl as passengers on the 5300 block of Richter Street.

Several Corpus Christi Police Officers set up a driver’s license checkpoint at the intersection of Sacky and Richter. The patrol officers stopped 14 vehicles in the one hour of the checkpoint operation. One of the vehicles that were stopped had no one older than 14 years old in the vehicle.

Ten minutes after midnight, Corpus Christi Police Officer Paulo Hernandez stopped at tan 2002 Chrysler PT Cruiser at the checkpoint to contact the operator of the vehicle and insure that operator had a valid driver’s license. The vehicle was operated by a 14-year-old girl with no driver license and Officer Hernandez noticed a smell of burnt marijuana from inside the vehicle.

The front passenger was a 12-year-old boy who had marijuana in his pocket and was a reported runaway. The other passenger was the 8-year-old sister to the 14-year-old driver.

The 12-year-old boy was taken to the Nueces County Juvenile Detention Center for possession of marijuana and issued a citation for violation of night-time curfew. The 14-year-old girl and the 8-year-old girl were taken home to their mother and issued a citation for violation of night-time curfew. The girls said they waited for their mother to fall asleep, and then they took the car without the mother’s knowledge. The vehicle was delivered to the city impound lot by a tow truck.