Pretty much every kid has done the 'I'm running away and you can't stop me' routine only to chicken out once it got dark or they got hungry, but this kid in China deserves an award for his follow through on the runaway promise.

Peng Yijian ran away from his home in Shanghai after getting into an argument with his mother over his homework (understandable), and fled to the closest thing to home, the local IKEA store where he lived off the free food samples inside the store and, police imagine, slept on one of the shops many bedroom displays.

During the day Yijian would venture out into the streets and feed on other supermarket's free samples before returning to the store at night. Police eventually found the youngster after he was spotted on CCTV at a railway station and they went to the places his mother said he liked to visit, one of which was IKEA, and locked down the exits and started a 40 minute manhunt before finding him near an elevator.

Peng was sent to hospital after being found 'weak with hunger', and his parents have promised to be 'better at communication' in future.

There's definitely a film here. Someone call Spielberg ASAP.

Via NY Daily News/Image via IKEA