By . M L Nestel . PUBLISHED: . 05:55 EST, 11 October 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 08:22 EST, 11 October 2013 . The parents of a nine-year-old boy who sneaked onto a plane from Minneapolis to Las Vegas never filed a missing persons report with the police and his father gave up looking for him to go to work, MailOnline has learned. The boy’s parents have said he vanished while taking out the trash last Thursday. The boy sneaked out of his home in the morning, got on a train to the airport, dodged all security, embarked the Delta Flight at 11.15am and after a three hour flight made headlines around the world. But MailOnline has learned it was the police - not his parents - who filed the missing persons report and only when they were called by Las Vegas police after the boy had arrived there. Scroll down for video . 'Good parents': V.J. Smith, right, who appeared alongside the boy's hooded father at a bizarre press conference, claimed to MailOnline that the boy's mother and father 'did everything good parents do' The parents only learned where their son was on October 4, when officers from the Minneapolis Police Department came to their door at around 5.30pm to tell them their son was 1,600 miles away in Nevada. A family friend told MailOnline that the parents thought they needed to wait for 48 hours before informing authorities that their son had vanished. He added that they 'thought he must be somewhere'. ‘The information they got was they needed to wait 48 hours before you call the police,’ family friend and anti-violence advocate V.J. Smith, who is representing the family told MailOnline. ‘So they were going by certain rules and they thought he must be somewhere.’ But a missing child of such a young age would have been a top priority, cops said today. ‘With a 9-year-old that would be a fairly substantial priority for us,’ Sgt. William Palmer, a Minneapolis Police Department spokesman said. He said the search could even call for the best investigators to solve the case. Mystery: The boy vanished after taking out the trash and the family 'thought he must be somewhere' so the father, above, went to work . ‘We might even bring in a lot of officers and knock doors and in some cases we might involve some of our homicide investigators.’ It has also emerged that the boy’s father gave up looking for his son on the Thursday, and hoped he was just with friends. He went to work at a local bus company. ‘They were hoping he was at a friend’s house,’ Smith said. ‘And they were calling around and they didn’t know.’ Smith insists his mom called in sick from her job at the airport so she could search for him. ‘He [dad] was at work and she took the day off and began to look. So they really did do their best to be good parents.’ It has also emerged that the boy was at home because he’d been suspended from school for fighting with another student. The apparently relaxed attitude of the parents to where the child was is particularly alarming because just 48 hours before he boarded the flight he had stolen a truck and crashed it into a police cruiser after a short chase. The boy's father said they his son had thought he was playing video game 'Grand Theft Auto'. His father has admitted that his son's outlandish behavior has included truancies and slipping passed an entry gate at a local theme park, and was escalating even as young as five-years-old. Troubled youth: It has emerged that the boy stole this truck and crashed it after a short police chase just two days before his cross-country jaunt . String of dramas: The truck incident happened just two days before the boy boarded the flight to Las Vegas . Troublesome: As well as stealing the car, the boy also has a history of playing truant and sneaking into a local water park without paying entry . At a press conference yesterday, in which he hid his face in a hoodie and baseball cap, he sobbed as he said he had asked the authorities for help with the boy on countless occasions but had got none. He even blamed the airport for his son’s behaviour, railing at the lack of security that allowed his boy to go through three sets of checks unchallenged before getting on the plane. The minor was eventually rumbled by cabin crew – but only when he was 40,000ft in the air. The boy is expected to be reunited with his family on Friday when he is flown back from Las Vegas and Smith said his group would help provide them with mentoring. Leaving: The runaway boy flew to Las Vegas from Minneapolis-St Paul International Airport on a Delta plane like this one, pictured. It was only discovered mid-air that he had no ticket . Smith said:  ‘They are going to get him back. Yeah of course they want him back. They do. 'The parents are going to get some help. A lot of folks in this community are stepping up to make sure that they get the assistance they need. ‘It's sad because I just had a gentleman come by my office and say “same thing happened to me, my son's in prison now. I don't know when he'll get out. I reached. I called. Nobody listened.  Now he's in prison. I just want to embrace this family. ‘They're getting the help now. But it's sad it had to come to this - him jumping on a plane for that to happen. But they're going to be okay and we're going to make sure that we get around this family.’ His siblings - an infant and teenage daughter - have remained in the custody of the boy’s family. The parents have also been paid visits by Janine Moore, who works for the county’s Human Services and Public Health Department. In all, the family have had four child assessments carried out on them. In an email titled ‘private data’ dated from last December, Moore described the boy to fellow administrators as ‘challenging’, The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported. Destination: Las Vegas McCarran International Airport, with the 'Strip' in the background. The nine-year-old flew here from Minneapolis without a ticket . Moore added that there ‘was a pattern of behaviour’ and that the kid couldn’t be trusted. ‘Typically, staff can tell if a child is lying, but with this child they are unsure what is going on. This is a two-parent home, and there is at least one other child.’ In her memo, Moore wrote that the boy's future could go two ways. If he's been mistreated, he could be removed from his home. If he has a mental health issue, there could be a 'behavioral health response,' which she didn't explain.
Family friend tells MailOnline that parents never called the police when their son, 9, went missing for at least seven hours .
It was only when he turned up in Las Vegas after getting 11.15am flight from Minneapolis did police contact them .
Friend claims they were searching for the boy but father went to work after a while as they believed 'he must be somewhere'
Boy had been suspended from school for fighting and had stolen and crashed a truck two days before his cross-country jaunt .
Boy expected to be returned to family today .
The family has been subject of four child protection assessments this year .
By . M L Nestel . PUBLISHED: . 05:55 EST, 11 October 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 08:22 EST, 11 October 2013 . The parents of a nine-year-old boy who sneaked onto a plane from Minneapolis to Las Vegas never filed a missing persons report with the police and his father gave up looking for him to go to work, MailOnline has learned. The boy’s parents have said he vanished while taking out the trash last Thursday. The boy sneaked out of his home in the morning, got on a train to the airport, dodged all security, embarked the Delta Flight at 11.15am and after a three hour flight made headlines around the world. But MailOnline has learned it was the police - not his parents - who filed the missing persons report and only when they were called by Las Vegas police after the boy had arrived there. Scroll down for video . 'Good parents': V.J. Smith, right, who appeared alongside the boy's hooded father at a bizarre press conference, claimed to MailOnline that the boy's mother and father 'did everything good parents do' The parents only learned where their son was on October 4, when officers from the Minneapolis Police Department came to their door at around 5.30pm to tell them their son was 1,600 miles away in Nevada. A family friend told MailOnline that the parents thought they needed to wait for 48 hours before informing authorities that their son had vanished. He added that they 'thought he must be somewhere'. ‘The information they got was they needed to wait 48 hours before you call the police,’ family friend and anti-violence advocate V.J. Smith, who is representing the family told MailOnline. ‘So they were going by certain rules and they thought he must be somewhere.’ But a missing child of such a young age would have been a top priority, cops said today. ‘With a 9-year-old that would be a fairly substantial priority for us,’ Sgt. William Palmer, a Minneapolis Police Department spokesman said. He said the search could even call for the best investigators to solve the case. Mystery: The boy vanished after taking out the trash and the family 'thought he must be somewhere' so the father, above, went to work . ‘We might even bring in a lot of officers and knock doors and in some cases we might involve some of our homicide investigators.’ It has also emerged that the boy’s father gave up looking for his son on the Thursday, and hoped he was just with friends. He went to work at a local bus company. ‘They were hoping he was at a friend’s house,’ Smith said. ‘And they were calling around and they didn’t know.’ Smith insists his mom called in sick from her job at the airport so she could search for him. ‘He [dad] was at work and she took the day off and began to look. So they really did do their best to be good parents.’ It has also emerged that the boy was at home because he’d been suspended from school for fighting with another student. The apparently relaxed attitude of the parents to where the child was is particularly alarming because just 48 hours before he boarded the flight he had stolen a truck and crashed it into a police cruiser after a short chase. The boy's father said they his son had thought he was playing video game 'Grand Theft Auto'. His father has admitted that his son's outlandish behavior has included truancies and slipping passed an entry gate at a local theme park, and was escalating even as young as five-years-old. Troubled youth: It has emerged that the boy stole this truck and crashed it after a short police chase just two days before his cross-country jaunt . String of dramas: The truck incident happened just two days before the boy boarded the flight to Las Vegas . Troublesome: As well as stealing the car, the boy also has a history of playing truant and sneaking into a local water park without paying entry . At a press conference yesterday, in which he hid his face in a hoodie and baseball cap, he sobbed as he said he had asked the authorities for help with the boy on countless occasions but had got none. He even blamed the airport for his son’s behaviour, railing at the lack of security that allowed his boy to go through three sets of checks unchallenged before getting on the plane. The minor was eventually rumbled by cabin crew – but only when he was 40,000ft in the air. The boy is expected to be reunited with his family on Friday when he is flown back from Las Vegas and Smith said his group would help provide them with mentoring. Leaving: The runaway boy flew to Las Vegas from Minneapolis-St Paul International Airport on a Delta plane like this one, pictured. It was only discovered mid-air that he had no ticket . Smith said:  ‘They are going to get him back. Yeah of course they want him back. They do. 'The parents are going to get some help. A lot of folks in this community are stepping up to make sure that they get the assistance they need. ‘It's sad because I just had a gentleman come by my office and say “same thing happened to me, my son's in prison now. I don't know when he'll get out. I reached. I called. Nobody listened.  Now he's in prison. I just want to embrace this family. ‘They're getting the help now. But it's sad it had to come to this - him jumping on a plane for that to happen. But they're going to be okay and we're going to make sure that we get around this family.’ His siblings - an infant and teenage daughter - have remained in the custody of the boy’s family. The parents have also been paid visits by Janine Moore, who works for the county’s Human Services and Public Health Department. In all, the family have had four child assessments carried out on them. In an email titled ‘private data’ dated from last December, Moore described the boy to fellow administrators as ‘challenging’, The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported. Destination: Las Vegas McCarran International Airport, with the 'Strip' in the background. The nine-year-old flew here from Minneapolis without a ticket . Moore added that there ‘was a pattern of behaviour’ and that the kid couldn’t be trusted. ‘Typically, staff can tell if a child is lying, but with this child they are unsure what is going on. This is a two-parent home, and there is at least one other child.’ In her memo, Moore wrote that the boy's future could go two ways. If he's been mistreated, he could be removed from his home. If he has a mental health issue, there could be a 'behavioral health response,' which she didn't explain.
when they were called by Las Vegas police after at around 5.30pm to tell them their son was 1,600 MailOnline that the parents thought they needed 'thought he must be somewhere'. ‘The information you call the police,’ family friend and father, above, went to work . ‘We might even been suspended from school for fighting with before he boarded the flight he had stolen a that the boy stole this truck and crashed it after a short police chase just two days before his cross-country jaunt . String of dramas: The but only when he was 40,000ft in the air. The boy is expected to be reunited with his family on It was only discovered mid-air that he had no administrators as ‘challenging’, The Minneapolis