The 5-year old boy was pulled over after driving down the highway in Weber County near Ogden, Utah. AFP

This scenario is as rare as hen’s teeth. A car is moving on a highway reportedly at about 48 km/hr, in a zigzag fashion.

A policeman, suspecting a differently-abled motorist behind the wheel, stops the car. But he is stunned by what he sees: a 5-year-old boy in the driver's seat! What the kid tells him is equally astonishing: he says he is going to California to buy a Lamborghini —  a very expensive marque — and he has just three dollars!

This is not a fictional tale but a real-life incident that happened in Utah. The state’s Highway Patrol tweeted about it.

The car was moving slowly on the left lane of the Interstate 15 freeway. The vehicle heaved in sight of a switched-on trooper, Rick Morgan, who activated his siren. The driver neatly pulled over to the side of the road.

"As Trp. Morgan approached the driver-side of the vehicle on foot, he noted that it was strange that he could not see the head of the driver from the rear window," the Highway Patrol said in a statement released on Tuesday.

The policeman was then totally flummoxed by what he saw who was behind the wheel: a 5-year-old kid. He probably will not forget it for the rest of his life.

A dashboard camera video posted by the police captured the conversation between the trooper and the driver, which has since been viewed on YouTube almost 760,000 times.

"You're 5 years old?" the trooper says. "Wow!"

He then asked the child where he learned how to drive and took down other details.

The boy, the policeman learnt, had an argument with his mother because he wanted to buy a Lamborghini. The mother rightaway refused and the boy, in a fit of rage, drove away to buy the luxury car – with just three dollars in his pocket.

"He decided to take the car and go to California to buy one himself," the police said in a tweet, adding: "He might have been short on the purchase amount as he only had $3 in his wallet."

The boy, who was not identified, had managed to drive about two to three miles (three to five kilometres) from his home before he was stopped and his parents contacted.

"The family reported that the boy's older sibling was watching him that morning, the sibling fell asleep and the boy took the keys to the SUV off of a hook in their home," the statement said.

"Fortunately, no one was hurt and no property was found damaged during his short outing."

The Utah police did not respond to requests for more information about the boy.