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Two 13-year-old Ohio boys who stole a parent's car and drove it hundreds of kilometres to Kansas City, Mo., were found sleeping in a downtown alley, police said.

Police had known the runaways from the Columbus area might pass through Kansas City because of information posted to Facebook, Capt. Steve Young said.

The boys were taken into custody on Monday by officers investigating a suspicious vehicle that matched the description of the BMW taken early Saturday from the mother of one of the boys.

"They were fine, fortunately," Young said. "I think there are definitely a whole lot of things that could have gone wrong for them, and having the police find them probably would be one of the better outcomes."

Catherine Johnson was relieved her son Cole and his friend Raheem Harris were safe, but she was surprised that the boys took off in her vehicle, for a trip that likely amounted to more than 1000 kilometres. She said Cole had wanted to go to California and she believes that's where he and Raheem were headed.

"How it went on for two days and no one noticed boggles my mind," Johnson said Monday by phone from Chicago as she waited for a flight to Kansas City to retrieve the boys, who had been turned over to the Jackson County Family Court.

Johnson said authorities told her the boys would not be charged in Kansas City. The car was towed.

Johnson said she has submitted a complaint over how Columbus police initially handled the case because she believes they took hours too long to get it filed and alert other authorities.

A Columbus police spokesman said he was unable to confirm late Monday that a complaint had been filed, but he defended the handling of the case and said officers followed the typical steps for dealing with such cases.

The missing information was posted three hours after it came in.