Mother has son arrested for playing with present before Christmas

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A fed-up mother had her 12-year-old son arrested for allegedly rummaging through his great-grandmother's things and playing with his Christmas present early.

The mother called police Sunday after learning her son had disobeyed orders and repeatedly taken a Game Boy from its hiding place at his great-grandmother's house next door and played it. He was arrested on petty larceny charges, taken to the police station in handcuffs and held until his mother picked him up after church.

"My grandmother went out of her way to lay away a toy and paid on this thing for months," said the boy's mother, Brandi Ervin. "It was only to teach my son a lesson. He's been going through life doing things ... and getting away with it."

Police did not release the boy's name.

The mother said that her son was found in the last year to have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, but that his medicine does not seem to help.
http://www.courttv.com/people/2006/1206/son_arrested_ap.html
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My first thought was that she wasted the cops time - but then I thought about it again. Had she beat him, the cops would have spent the same amount of time arresting her. Had she not beat him, and not called, the cops would spend MORE time dealing with him in the future.

It's a new world where we need cops to help us raise our children.