A 13-year-old runaway travelled 1,000 kilometers across Europe behind the wheel of his adoptive father’s Mercedes without a hitch in a bid to see a biological relative.

"He looks like a 16-year-old, but still! He managed to fuel up and pass two borders. It's just incredible," Eleonora Spadati from the police department in Montebelluna, where the boy had been living for the past two years, told AFP news agency.

The teenager is Polish by birth, but was adopted by an Italian family.

The boy, who knows how to drive due to go-karting, fled with his passport and 200 euros after an argument with his parents. The dispute reportedly broke out after the teenager topped up his mobile phone without permission, and had it confiscated.

He intended to join his biological sister in Poland.

The boy travelled for two days across Italy, Austria and Germany in the powerful luxury car, passed checkpoints and even refilled the petrol tank twice, all without raising alarm. Police only intercepted him near the Polish border, after his parents alerted the authorities.

The family has travelled to Germany to be reunited with the teenager, but will face an examination from social services when they return.

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