POLICE have arrested a 14-year-old Queensland boy who they say took a 15-hour, cross- country drive in a stolen car from the Gold Coast to visit friends in Leeton.

The arrest on Monday night followed a complaint to police from a motorist at Yanco, who reported seeing a Hyundai Excel being driven erratically.

A police patrol located a car matching the description parked outside a house on Cudgel Street at Yanco at 10pm.

Inquiries revealed it had been stolen from Broadbeach Waters on the Gold Coast earlier in the day and they took a 14-year-old boy from inside the house into custody.

Stolen goods were also allegedly found inside the car.

A 38-year-old man from Leeton at the same house was also arrested for outstanding warrants.

The 14-year-old was refused bail at Griffith Children's Court yesterday.

In a separate incident, a 20-year-old man, also from Leeton, was arrested yesterday morning after he allegedly crashed a stolen Ford Falcon utility into a tree near Narrandera.

Shortly after the 4.30am crash near the Berry Jerry rest area on the Sturt Highway, police say he hitchhiked back to Leeton.

Inquiries led detectives to a house where they arrested a 20-year-old man and charged him with driving while disqualified and theft of a motor vehicle.