Two 15-year-old boys found short-lived joy in operating forklifts they stole from a construction site in Surprise, north-east of Phoenix.

Surveillance images showed the boys riding bicycles into an unfinished parking garage and driving away in a pair of 2005 Daewoo G25E forklifts that the contractor had leased from RSC Equipment Rental of Phoenix, Arizona. Employees of the garage construction company left the keys in the ignition.

The boys' night-time adventure ended after they drove about half a mile (0.8 km) from the four-storey garage on North Civic Center Plaza.

"They rode in on bikes, wanted to play with the forklifts and thought it would be fun to race in the desert," says Sgt Mark Ortega. "The forklifts were buried up to their axles and abandoned." Footprints in the dirt matched the shoes of one of the boys.

Police questioned possible suspects and elicited a confession. Police charged the boys with suspicion of felony theft and released them to their parents.

The forklifts were not damaged. "We just had to tow them out of there," says Mike Deane with RSC Equipment.