Here’s an update from the front lines of the War on Christmas. Rock Hill (SC) mother has 12-year-old son arrested for opening Christmas present early
The boy’s great-grandmother had told him not to open his Nintendo Game Boy Advance, which she had wrapped and placed beneath the Christmas tree, according to a police report.
Don’t open your present early, or Santa will throw your sorry behind in jail!
The boy was arrested on petty larceny charges, taken to the Rock Hill police station in handcuffs and held until his mother picked him up after church.
… because the reason for the season is using the cops as a babysitter while you go to church? Silly me. I thought it was something about giving.
Reading the article, I see that there’s a lot wrong with the situation: an uneducated single mother who’s 27 years old with two children ages 12 and 7, one of the kids being diagnosed with ADHD and facing expulsion from school, etc. But that’s no justification for trying to get your 12-year-old a police record to “scare” him – for trying to mess with his Christmas present early. That is a family issue, not a police issue.
(Hint: If it’s that important to keep the presents away from your kids, don’t put them under the tree until Christmas Eve.)
His mother said neither arrest seemed to scare him as she had hoped. She is distressed because her son is relishing the attention brought by his latest arrest.
Color me unsurprised.
Oh, and thie story seems to have hit CNN, too. I hate it when this is how South Carolina gets into the national press…
Sad thing is…they probably let him have the Game Boy when he got home from his visit with the police…