LEE COUNTY, Fla. - A 7-year-old is recovering after getting banged up during a joy ride. The boy decided to take his parents' mini van out for a spin and then crashed.

"He put it in reverse and backed up, and I actually thought he ran over his mother," said Donald Murray.

You'd think a second grader wouldn't be able to reach the gas pedal let alone shift gears and drive. But Donald Murray's 7-year-old neighbor did much more than that. "Well, he got in...started it up...his mother was yelling at him telling him to stop and get out of the car."

But the boy didn't listen, and Murray, a Lehigh Acres firefighter, decided to get out of the way. "You're not going to go out and tackle a Dodge Caravan. So, just wait for the ride to end," says Murray.

The boy took out his family's mailbox, his neighbors tree, then crashed into a tree in Murray's backyard. The airbag sent the boy into the backseat instead of through the windshield.

Kurt Vega is the boy's father. "We just thank the good Lord that he's alive."

Vega says his son is resting a little sore and bruised but okay. "I think when he's had his kids he can have a story to tell his kids...'Do you know what I did when I was seven-years-old'?"

The boy told his father he drove the car because he wanted to show his mom he could drive himself to school. Vega says they have now put the keys in a safer place to prevent this from happening again.