Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast - This Famous Internet Star is in Prison Now - The Latarian Milton Story

Episode Date: October 6, 2025

Latarian Milton became an internet sensation at age 7 in 2008 after taking his grandmother’s Dodge Durango on a joyride through Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. During the escapade, he caused significant property damage, including hitting parked cars and mailboxes. When interviewed by local news, Milton infamously stated, “I want to do hood-rat stuff with my friend,” which quickly went viral. Despite the severity of his actions, he faced no formal charges due to his age. In the years that followed, Milton encountered further legal issues, including a 2017 arrest for armed robbery and carjacking. He was arrested again in 2023 in New Jersey on charges of simple assault and resisting arrest.

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Oh! Marvel Studios The Fantastic Four First Steps, now streaming on Disney Plus, we did PG-13. What time is it, Ben? It's Clubber Time! Do you remember a long time ago that seven-year-old kid who became famous for stealing a car? Well, he's about to do it all over again. Now, the kid's name is Letarian, and Latarian is seven when this story starts, and he's living in Florida,

and all this kid seems to want to do is get into trouble. And one day, in 2008, he and his grandma are visiting his mom at her townhouse, and so they're all there, and Latarian asks if he can have his friend come over to watch cartoons. But his mom says no. Here's the thing, though, Latterian's friend is already there waiting outside. Regardless, Latarian's mom won't let him in the house. And so Latarian gets super pissed off, and he steals the keys to his grandma's SUV. Then he and his friend, they get in the car, and Latarian gets in the driver's seat,

and he starts it up, and he puts it into gear and the two drive off heading to Walmart. Meanwhile, back at home, grandma and mom, are putting together one of those kids' basketball hoops. And at one point, Grandma goes inside to get some screws that she had left on the counter, and she notices that her keys are missing. And she also notices that Letarian is gone. And she's like, oh, shit, that little jerk stole my car!

And immediately, she starts freaking out. And she screams for someone to call the police. Now, apparently, Letterian can drive. Like, he's actually doing it. He and his friend cruise around for miles down busy streets, through crowded parking lots, and during that time, they run over a couple of mailboxes, they hit two parked cars, and even two moving cars. Now eventually, someone sees Letarian, who is so short it looks like he can't even see over the steering wheel. And they call the police.

And so police come and they spot Latarian driving, and they turn on their lights and they try to pull him over. But I guess instead of pulling over, Latterian is just like, no, I'll just drive home instead. And he starts driving home. And at some point, while driving home, scur, kaboom. He crashes into a curb and a sign, and he snaps one of the car's axles and wheels. Here is actually a picture of his grandma's SUV later. It looks like this is in the impound yard. You can see that it's all wrecked.

And so grandma's ride is total. But luckily, the two boys aren't hurt. And so police, they get Latarian, and later that day, they escorted him home. And a local news crew hears about the accident, and they show up to his house. They want to interview him about what happened. And this is where he ends up doing an on-camera interview with a local news station. And the reporter asks him why he stole his grandmother's car. I want to do it because it's fun.

It's funny to do bad things to drive into a car. But did you know that you could perhaps kill somebody? Yes, but I wanted to do hill-wrath stuff for my friend. And so that news station posts a clip of that interview to YouTube. And the video blows the fuck up. People find it hilarious. It becomes an early viral internet sensation. It gets millions of views and like people are sharing it all around.

And they're quoting him because he has so many quotable lines. I took my girlfriend because they got mad at my mom. And then I suddenly had my friend come in and he smoked with a cigarette. And people start calling him Hood Rat Kid, which is just not a good name to have when you're seven. Now, you would think that this viral joy ride would be the end of Latarian's crime spree. But no, no, no, he's just getting started. A few weeks later, he's at Walmart with his grandmother. And he gets into a fight with her because she won't let him get any chicken wings.

And during the fight, he starts hitting her, and he hits her in the stomach. and on her legs, basically anywhere he can reach. And this causes a whole scene, and it makes the local news too. The problem began when Latarian asked his grandmother to buy him some chicken wings. So, unfortunately, his terrible behavior keeps getting him attention. For example, that same year, he, his grandma, and his mom are scheduled to appear on Judge Judy. We're going to the Judge Judy show. Encouraged by show producers, Lottarian Milton's grandmother says,

she plans to sue her daughter, blaming Latarian's mother for allowing him to steal her SUV, then drive off. But thankfully, after a lot of public criticism, the Judge Judy show ends up canceling on them. But Latarian's not done getting attention yet. Two years later, in 2010, he's nine years old at this point.

He gets invited onto the Comedy Central show, Tosh Point O. Do you think that this was kind of your grandma's fault? I love it, she should have kept her keys in her purse. She should have kept her keys in her purse. Don't you think you should just not take her car? No. Not only that, that same year, that animated show The Boondocks creates a hood rat character based on Latarian.

LaMilton, what about the people you could have heard? I don't care nothing about those people. I wanted to do hood rat stuff for my friends. Now, eventually, all this attention stops. His 15 minutes of fame ends, and Latterian goes back to being a regular Florida kid living of normal life. And a few years pass. And he goes to middle school, and he graduates from middle school. Here's a picture of him holding his certificate of completion, and, you know, good for him.

And then the local news comes out, and they interview him again, and, you know, he seems to be doing much better. Going wrong is bad, but doing good, I could be a success in doing some stuff. And so it looks like Latarian has learned his lesson finally, and that he's going to grow up and he'll never get into any serious trouble ever again. Until. Until he screws up real big. Because it's now 2017, and Latarian is 16 years old at this point. And one night, he's hanging out with four of his friends.

So there are five of them total. And they order a lift. And so the lift shows up and the driver picks them up and he takes them to their location, but when they get there, only one of them gets out. And the driver's like, what's going on? And Latarian and the rest of the group tell him to take them somewhere else, a different location. And the driver's like, okay, well, you got to make a request through the app. And I guess they don't want to do that. So the driver refuses to take them anywhere. Because, you know, he's trying to get paid. This is his job. And that is when suddenly

one of Latarian's friends in the back pulls out a pistol and packed. he hits the driver in the head with it, and the driver is totally freaked out. Then, Latarian's friend points the gun at him, and he forces him out of the car. Then they take his wallet and his jacket, and they take the whole car, too. And with Letarian driving, they all speed away. And they leave the driver just standing there on the street. Now, the dumbest part about this crime is that they not only stole this poor guy's car, but they stole the lift after Letterian ordered that very lift,

Which means the driver has all of his account information. His name, his phone number, etc. And so the driver gives the phone number to police. And police easily trace it back to Latarian's Facebook account. And so they find him and bam, they arrest him. Here's his mugshot. And he gets three years in prison for this. And he gets out a little early and in 2019, bam, he's arrested again.

Here's another mugshot. This time he's sentenced to one year, nine months in prison for grand theft. Then he gets out, and in 2023, when he's 22 years old, bam, he gets arrested again. There's his mugshot again. And this time he was involved in some kind of physical domestic dispute. I'm not really sure. But from here, I couldn't find any credible information on whether or not he got sent back to prison or what or what he's got going on now. Regardless, you know, I hope he figures himself out.