A would-be robber feigned injury in a road before he and others tried to attack a driver in his car in Brighton.
The youngster, with four or five friends, forced the 26-year-old man from Brighton to stop his car in Church Place, Kemp Town.
He said: “I drove past the Manor Gym … and a group of kids, in black school uniforms with a football.
“I assume that they just came from the Manor Gym football pitch because one of the kids had a football with him.
“These kids tried to rob us in the car while my mother was in the passenger seat. It happened just opposite Lee Hire by the Kemp Town Flower Shop, Church Place.
“These bunch of morons stood in the middle of the road while one of them pretended to be injured. They deliberately made us stop.
“I was then forced to stop in the middle of the road, opened my window to ask them what was going on and see if they needed help with something.
“The other kids then shouted, ‘rob it!’ And the kid who pretended to be injured then tried to open the passenger side door where my mum was sitting. And when they realised it was locked, they just walked away like nothing just happened.”
The boys were described as probably in year 8 or 9 at school – or 12 to 14 years old – mostly white and one black boy who had a football. The boy lying in the road was white with medium-length blond hair.
They were wearing white polo shirts, black sweatshirts or jumpers with a white logo on, possibly a school logo.
The attempted robbery happened on Thursday (6 April) at about 7.30pm.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Sussex Police on 101 quoting reference 1546 of 06/04/2017.