When Tangie Wilson’s 8-year-old daughter, Zoe, asked to use her iPad early one Sunday morning in September at their home in Bedford, Ohio, she assumed her child had settled into her room or on the couch with the device, so she went back to sleep.

She didn’t know that Zoe, who was still upset after an argument with her older sister the night before, managed to sneak out of the house with her mother’s car keys, wallet and ID around 7 a.m. The third grader then drove the family’s S.U.V. — with the family’s dog, Bear, in tow — about 10 miles to Target in an act of rebellion.

“Not even 30 minutes later, her sister came in and was like, ‘Mom, where is Zoe? She took the dog,’” Ms. Wilson, a hair stylist, said in a phone interview on Friday. “And I’m like, ‘She just asked for her iPad, what do you mean she’s not here?’”

What followed was a brief missing-persons case that involved neighbors, family members and the local police. Zoe, who was found safe at Target nearly two hours later, became an internet and media sensation, leading many to question how a child so young could get herself to the store without hurting anyone, and how she ended up with a Frappuccino at the store’s Starbucks.

Ms. Wilson said that her daughter had made a plan the night before to take the car, but that Zoe had told her she did not have a destination in mind for her adventure until she accidentally cracked the iPad while leaving the house, so she figured she would go to Target to replace the case. When she couldn’t determine what size case she needed, she shopped for toys and makeup instead.