22 Most Insane Things Teenagers Have Done

A teenager named Peter Roberts invented a quick-release ratchet. He sold his patent to Sears for $10,000 who said that the invention was not worth very much. Sears then went on to make $44 million selling the ratchet. He sued them for fraud and was awarded just $1 million.

2. A kidnapped teen named Julian Hernandez did not know he was kidnapped until he applied to college, 13 years after his kidnapping. He was kidnapped by his father and non-custodial parent, Bobby Hernandez.

3. In 2016, an 18-year-old Ohio teenager named Izaha Akins fooled an entire school, multiple police officers, and a car dealership that he was the youngest State Representative ever. He was escorted to the school, given a tour, and spoke to the high school students about being involved in politics.

4. When the "affluenza teen" Ethan Couch was 13, he was allowed to drink and to drive himself to school. When the head of the school objected, Couch's father threatened to buy the school.

5. In 1996, a black teenager named Keshia Thomas, while marching to protest a KKK rally in Michigan, protected a white man, who had an "SS" tattoo and a confederate flag shirt, from the attacks of a crowd. She threw herself on him to deflect the mob's strikes, due to her belief that "nobody deserves to be hurt."

A 14-year-old black teenager named Emmett Till was killed in 1955 for allegedly flirting with a white female. The murderers were acquitted in a trial by an all-white jury.

7. When teens are taught that people have the potential to change their socially relevant traits over time, they tend to cope better with social stress and end up earning better grades in school.

8. In 1944, a black teenager named George Stinney was accused of murdering two white girls on flimsy evidence. He was tried without legal representation with an all-white jury, and he was executed by electric chair at the age of 14 in South Carolina.

9. The Miss South Carolina teen, Caitlin Upton, who became an internet meme for her incomprehensible answer contemplated suicide after her pageant flub.

10. A California teenager named Steven Ortiz traded up an old phone on Craigslist for different items until he eventually acquired a Porsche.

A New Zealand teen named Matt Dillion Shannon set a friend on fire as a prank. In his defense, he stated, "If he'd stopped, dropped and rolled, it would have just been a joke instead of a serious incident."

12. A teenager hacked CIA director John Brennan's email by calling Verizon's customer support and pretending to be a Verizon technician.

13. A teen named Eric Simons secretly lived in AOL's headquarters for 2 months, eating free food, using the gym and showers, sleeping in conference rooms while working on his start-up. Everyone assumed he worked there.

14. During the 2009 Philippines floods, a teenager named Muelmar Magallanes saved 30 lives. After leaping into the rushing waters to save his family from danger, he repeatedly jumped back in to save others, including a trapped mother and baby, until too tired to fight the current he was swept away.

15. Two Muslim Chechen teens named Movsar Zyamaev and Rustam Daudov saved 23 people during the 2011 Norway terrorist attack by Anders Breivik. A 3rd teen died trying to help.

In 2013, 300 teenagers broke into a home of former NFL player Brian Holloway while he was away and caused $20,000 in damages. Some of the parents threatened to sue the owner for outing them on Twitter.

17. In 2006, a Michigan teen named Thiago Olson built a working fusion nuclear reactor. He taught himself how to build it as a weekend hobby project in his basement from ages 15-17 on a budget of just $3500.

18. In 2008, a teenager named Brandon Swanson drove into a ditch in Minnesota and while talking to his parents over the phone the call dropped. The last thing they heard was "Oh, sh*t". He's been missing since.

19. A Philadelphia teen named Brian Jerome fell 5 stories while exploring an abandoned hotel with his friends breaking nearly every bone in his body. About 8 weeks later he was back home and back to living a normal life. 

20. A teenager named Adrianne Ledesma was once arrested by a policeman who scolded her for swearing on 911, even though the call made in the first place was for the teen's dying father.

A teen girl named Ashley Smith killed herself in prison while guards watched for 45 minutes, claiming they were ordered not to intervene. The girl had originally been arrested years earlier for shoplifting and had severe mental illness.

22. A teenager named Guillaume Dumas snuck into Ivy League schools over 4 years, gaining free education from Yale, Brown, Stanford and many others.