OT - honor among thieves????

[wabi]

An unpleasant incident last night, and this morning I'm still upset.

Was in my ladder stand yesterday evening and my cell phone rang. My wife was calling to tell me to "get home quickly".
Seems my son (age 11) was riding his bicycle and three older boys (age 14-16?) jumped him. One tackled him knocking him to the ground while the other two took off with his bike.

My son knew he was overmatched, so he broke free and ran home. My wife called the town police and was waiting for them when I got home.

Luckily he knew the name of another kid who witnessed the act, and the first name of one of the three that jumped him. The cop took a report and had the bike back in our custody within an hour or so.
The one boy involved that he questioned told him where they had hidden the bike (confessing guilt by doing so - criminals aren't overly smart at times), but claimed he didn't know the other boy's names.
The cop gave him until 8:00PM today to call him with the names - or he could face charges of assault & robbery alone!

Guess I'll see if there is honor among thieves - I'm betting the cop will have all the names tonight.

And I will press charges if the cop is unsuccessful in getting them in court. (He has to file a report and recommend the prosecutor file the charges, it's really up to the prosecutor to file.)

[Louvp]

Sorry to hear that, I hope your son is ok.

[rayman]

That's too much. Young boys do stupid things that get them in trouble but it's too much to jump a smaller kid and steal his bike. They deserve what ever lesson comes their way at this point. I also hope the police tell the boys that they now have a file and that there had better not be any reports of them messing with your boy again. Unfortunately, their parants are probably to blame also.

[VixChix]

Glad to hear you got the bike back! Good too that the police are taking it very seriously and following through.

Hopefully your boy isn't too traumatized by the event. It can be tough for a younger person to process the experience. Take a while for things to be "normal" again.

It's interesting how the kids have their own networks and code of honor/dishonor among themselves even at a young age.

When I was young (8) and we were getting ready to move from Chicago to Edmonton all 3 of our bikes disappeared one night. We figured it must have been someone who knew we were moving.

We spread the word among our other young friends in the neighbourhood. One of the older boys in the neighbourhood said he'd look after it. The next day all 3 bikes reappeared again overnight.

We lived in a rougher part of town - although as kids we had no idea. We thought sirens, biker gangs, robberies, and murders were just the way things were. I'll be forever grateful to God that I got the chance to live in Alberta for the next 13 years!

[rayman]

I was fortunate to have grown up mostly in a small town in North Florida in a good neighborhood. We never even thought about locking our door, even when we went on trips. Moved to a big city in the southern part of the state when I was 11 and the code of conduct was completely different. Was very glad when we moved back to my small home town.

[gogo]

We have an 11 year old with learning disabilities who gets bullied often. I know first hand how upsetting it is to have this happen.Some kids have nothing better to do then pick on smaller ones then them selves, you can bet they do not pick on bigger kids.Lets hope that the parents do the right thing and straighten their kids out.Just the thought of this happening makes my blood boil, these things should never happen.Young kids should be having the time of their lives not going through life being picked on.Sure hope everything works out ok for you and your son.

[rayman]

I have a niece who was born prematurely and has cp. She is out of school now, but I heard from my sister once that some kids kept messing with her on the bus. I told my niece that the next time that happend she should call me on my cell and i would come over. She never did. About that same time a man was in the news in the same town that was prosecuted for coming on a school bus and slapping a couple of boys around. It was only later that I learned the man had a son who had a disability and the boys on the bus were picking on him. Could have been me.

[deerhunter0430]

glad to hear your son is ok you can always get a new bike but not a new son !!

[vixenmaster]

wabi, i am sorry to hear of that happing to yer son. I am glad y'all got the police & they're going to get those boys fer assulting & stealing yer son's bike

[georgiaboy]

Sorry to hear this happened to your son.
What the hell is this world coming to? A kid can't even ride his bike!?
Had my son been involved in some crap like this at that age he wouldn't have been able to sit down for a month!!
Good luck to you...hope things work out.

[wabi]

Just got a call from the cop investigating it. He's got two of them identified now and still working on it.
Hopefully we'll get some results on prosecuting them.

[DaGriz]

Don't give them any slack. Force the issue of prosecution to the maximum! sounds like aggravated assault with attempt to bodily harm, robbery and whatever else they can come up with up

[Crispy]

Whats wrong with the world now a days? Glad your son is ok and got his bike back. Hope life gets back to normal for him quickly. Dont cut those other boys any slack, they gotta learn sometome.

[Sliver]

Don't give them any slack. Force the issue of prosecution to the maximum! sounds like aggravated assault with attempt to bodily harm, robbery and whatever else they can come up with up

I agree!

I hope your son is ok Mike.... what the hell is wrong with our society these days... it makes me absolutley sick to see how some people are treating each other these days..

[one shot scott]

Im sorry to hear that this happened to your boy. Not cool