An 8-year-old Honduran boy who hitchhiked to Mexico was caught hiding in the landing gear of an airplane trying to steal a free ride to Los Angeles, a Mexican newspaper reported Saturday.
Siglo 21, a newspaper in the central Mexican city of Guadalajara, said Javier Licona Serrano was caught by migration officials hiding in a Los Angeles-bound plane at Guadalajara airport late Friday, on the last leg of a bizarre 1,300-mile journey to reach his mother.Sick of being bullied by his brothers, Licona Serrano left home in Lempira, western Honduras, with his clothes bundled in a plastic bag. He hitched rides from sympathetic drivers through Central America and southern Mexico, the paper said.
Migration officials at Guadalajara's international airport were not immediately available to confirm the story. But other airport officials said it was true and the paper showed a photograph of the wide-eyed boy holding up a map.
The officials may have actually saved Serrano's life. Others have been crushed, frozen or have fallen to their deaths during attempts to stowaway in the landing gear of airplanes.
According to Siglo 21, the boy has finally managed to get a seat on a plane - but it will take him back home to Honduras.