Going Dutch: 12-Year-Old Girl Kidnaps Pony. You Won't Believe What She Did Next

May I present to you the weirdest story thus far of the year 2015?

A 12-year-old girl made headlines in the Netherlands because she first kidnapped the pony she takes care of in her spare time, and then took the (lucky?) animal for a train ride. Other train passengers, among them Jarno Moleveld, couldn’t believe their eyes when they saw the girl nicely petting her pony in the train. Jarno filmed the rather adventurous trip with his phone:

Now, the story is rather entertaining, but there’s also a serious side to it. The girl doesn’t own the pony, she just takes care of it. This happens a lot in the Netherlands; that way, children (especially girls) who can’t afford a horse or pony can create a bond with one nonetheless. The pony’s rightful owner didn’t know anything about the girl’s plans. She just went to check on her animals and suddenly saw that one was gone. She immediately contacted the police, who eventually found the girl and the pony in Leeuwarden.

The girl had taken her pony on the train from the city of Sneek to Leeuwarden because her friends wanted to see the animal. The train’s engineer saw the pair getting on, but did nothing to stop them. He only tried to intervene when they arrived in Leeuwarden, but the girl got out of the train rather quickly; she was already gone. She then took the pony for a nice stroll through Leeuwarden… until she was apprehended by the authorities.

After that, the girl was brought to her angry mother, and the pony was taken back to its owner (in a trailer this time). And the engineer? He had the honor of cleaning up the train; the pony apparently didn’t know we use toilets in the train.