Monday, November 17, 2008 - 09:26 pm, by: Iain Morrison(Iain)
.....you one day catch someone stealing something off your Soarer. Let's say they were stealing something very minor. For instance, hypothetically, they were stealing the air valve caps off your very expensive aftermarket wheels. However, the criminal is only an 11 or 12 year old boy wearing his school uniform. Hypothetically, by the time you have caught the little rascal he has managed to throw the evidence down the drain. Now your rather angry but keep your cool enough to restrain the blighter from doing some real damage to your shins long enough to get him back to your office unharmed. Hypothetically, you question the subject. You ask his name, age, parents phone number, address etc. Your questions are met with a string of expletives that would make a sailor blush. So, in frustration, you search his school bag to try to get some answers. Bingo! His wallet contains the information you searched for. You contact the young lads parents, who you are sure will be very concerned as to what their darling son gets up to after school. Now, young Johnny's father comes around to collect his son and give him the thrashing he richly deserves. But, what if the young fella's father doesn't give his little bugger a belting. Instead, hypothetically, the father starts to get extremely aggressive towards you. He threatens you with physical violence. The charming fellow then threatens to ring the police and have you charged with assaulting his son. However, he grabs his little rapscalion of a son and storms out the door. So now all you have is damaged pride, missing air valve caps and the bastards address. After you pick your jaw up off the floor you realise you are left with the following hypothetical options.
Option 1: Forget all about. Option 2: Report it to the police Option 3: Take revenge
Monday, November 17, 2008 - 09:39 pm, by: Mike Bradberry(Halflife)
The worst thing to consider would be revenge. Probably it would lead to more trouble and simply puts you on a similar level as your adversary. To report it to the police may be a waste of time. Not only on your part, but they may feel there are more pressing things to deal with. Your hypothetical schoolboy may have had enough of a fright not to do that kind of thing again. It also bothers me that there are men out there acting as role models for young men and boys who act as this father did.
Monday, November 17, 2008 - 09:53 pm, by: Justin Ross(Jross)
Definately revenge. I don't recommend you do it though. Im going through it at the moment, some stupid kids wanna bully me for no reason so they keep egging my house like twice a week at around 11pm.
I considered calling the cops and giving their names and license plate number, but whats the point? The cops won't really do anything about it, they'll have a chat to them and then that'll be it, its the same with your situation.
It's obviously not the right thing to do, but I'm still gunna get my revenge...and it'll feel damn good too!
Monday, November 17, 2008 - 10:47 pm, by: Mike Beck(Gold_40gt)
I'd probably be a 'PC cock' and report it to some wanky TV station making it a big deal about youth crime (which it is) and issues surrounding bad parenting on the fathers behalf, a lot of shows in NZ thrive on this sort of stuff having 5-10 minute segments around the issues. It would be hilariously embarrassing for that family if it was broadcasted! (wouldn't surprise me if a story like this did come up in NZ)
Or I'd just go to the police, even if nothing came out of it, hopefully the man gets a warning or something but ehh!
Kind of a tricky annoying situation, If the offender was older then it would be a different story completely!
Monday, November 17, 2008 - 10:56 pm, by: Iain Morrison(Iain)
David Vaughan wrote on Monday, November 17, 2008 - 10:11 pm:
Hypothetically, you acted improperly and should drop it completely before you get into trouble yourself.
IANAL, TINLA, and it was only a hypothetical anyway.
I hear you David. Hypothetically, the person in this scenario possibly committed a crime the moment he lay hands on a minor. And I do not condone that. However, put yourself in the place of the original victim. All he wished for was that the child's parent took some responsibility for their child's criminal actions. Kids will be kids. But, who is to teach these kids about right and wrong? This, in my opinion, is what is wrong in today's society. Noone seems to be willing to take responsibility for their actions. Our hypothetical subject really has no malice towards the child. Especially after seeing firsthand the child's parental role model. The parent, on the other hand, has little excuse for their actions......
Baaa....now I'm preaching.
I'm not looking for a legal opinion. I just want to get people's opinions on what they would do in this scenario.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008 - 06:26 am, by: Matthew Sharpe(Madmatt)
Not sure about Australia, but in NZ you could be done for illegal detainment, searching the kids bag would almost certainly have some kind of legal charge, and possibly assault on a minor also - so hypothetically, in NZ I wouldn't go near the police as they tend to take "blind justice" way to literally over here and just prosecute anyone they can to improve their statistics.
Really not much you can do I think, as any attempt at restitution for you lost property is bound to fail as the father appears to be the problem, and his boy is simply learning from him.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008 - 09:08 am, by: David Vaughan(Davidv)
I sympathise with your view on the father. Still, as Matthew puts it more sharply, you have to say to yourself you learned something about bad parenting and leave it at that.
If the father was naturally aggressive then it is equally likely he belted his son when he got home anyway, which could be a reason his son might be like that. It is all pointless conjecture. You just go on what you have to do yourself and leave thinking about them behind.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008 - 06:25 pm, by: Luke Streat(Streatracer)
Although hypothetical Child is clearly wrong never, ever, ever mess with someone's kids. Even though the kid absolutely deserved it I believe most fathers instincts would probably lead them to the same scenario you faced. When it comes to Dad's and their kids its often shoot first ask questions later, though in this particular (hypothetical) situation sounds like a plain old failure to parent. I'd forget about it, while revenge is always tempting you gotta ask yourself where would/could it end? these things can escalate. I feel your hypothetical pain though
Tuesday, November 18, 2008 - 06:46 pm, by: Ben Kelly(Ace)
funny same thing happened to me when i was a kid, i was dared to steal someones valve caps and got caught! i was scared to death and the guy made me put them back on, i was so damn scared i dropped one of them in the grass and it seemed like an eternity till i could find it. Then he gave me a talking to about stealing. Thinking about it now though, if he had have taken me away somewhere and gone through my bag i would have hoped my dad would have had a few choice things to say on my behalf.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008 - 07:54 pm, by: Bruce Passfield(Bruce)
Wait for a little while, (Because people like this family usually piss off a lot of people)Then extract your revenge. That way they won't know who had a go at them. If your going to wait for Karma or god forbid the law you might be waiting a long time.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008 - 07:59 pm, by: Chris Papas(Papasc)
The process of escalation gets very serious, and in the end, innocent is the only loser.
These kids no doubt have already had the rough end of the stick, do they really want more of that.
Sometimes the reverse of what they expect will ease the situation. Time to understand (not lecture) may help, even turn them around.
Have a think about talking to them, they get off knowing they have annoyed you. If your not annoyed, they will get bored and hopefully move on.
Worst case you've tried to communicate, in a decent way, not through violence. Violence breeds violence. It's a horrible cycle that needs to be broken.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008 - 08:20 pm, by: Bruce Passfield(Bruce)
Let's all sit around the fire and sing "KUMBYIA" or how ever you spell it. Or let's give the little bugger a good counselling session. Or say it was your fault by leaving your caps where they could be stolen (on your car).Bully's only understand one thing, somebody who is a bigger bully than they are. Reality is if this family get away with this they will think you are another piss ant who was an easy take and gives them the idea that they are untouchable or can do what ever they want. The trouble in todays society is nobody is accountable,or that they are "just expressing themselves". Do gooders have FU#$@$^ED the system up. Make people accountable for their actions. More responsibility and less rights.
Peter Nitschke Junk Filterer South Australia UZZ30 UZZ31
Wednesday, November 19, 2008 - 12:19 am, by: Ben Dowdell(Ben)
revenge if you want to call it that could be quite subtle yet decisive...... Make up 100 flyers with the kids name and address, even just street name with details of what happened and how the father reacted.
You are the good samaritan warning neighbours of the incident and make life a pain in the arse for the kid and his father!
be sure to drop one in his letter box 1 day later with a note of what you have done and that you were dissatisfied with the fathers behaviour.
be a real hard arse and drop it off at his school too!!!!
Wednesday, November 19, 2008 - 12:26 am, by: Ben Dowdell(Ben)
geez i am a c*nt ...... i had the same thing done to me recently. abused the crap out of the kids, lectured them and they understood my point and replaced the caps. as they rode off on their bikes they abused me back.... if i were fit and did not have my boss' watching it might have resulted in a chase and a clip around the ear.... glad it did not come to that however the little pricks came back and stole them a few days later!
Wednesday, November 19, 2008 - 08:48 am, by: Jeff Bedsor(Jeff_bedsor)
240 volts though the wheels, that will fix the little fu*ckers. My pretty blue caps on my wrx used to get knocked off regularly, I ended up keeping a spare set in the glove box. Half the kids in Gladstone must have had blue valve caps on their pushies.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008 - 01:06 pm, by: Glen Muller(Doom_and_gloom)
Peter Nitschke wrote on Tuesday, November 18, 2008 - 11:07 pm:
The fathers first instinct was to protect the kid, but later things might have been quite different.
More than likely.
Live and let live folks - everyone gets what's coming to them... they'll keep. Revenge, in such a case, is for people with no respect for anyone, including themselves.
Saturday, November 22, 2008 - 06:55 pm, by: James Cahir(James987)
This thread reminds me of a Shaun Micallef sketch years ago. Hypothetically, I would live in a big castle on top of a mountain, with my twenty wives and my pet unicorn, where there are no trouble makers to take my valve caps. Hypothetically speaking of course
Seriously though, I'd be thinking up some kick ass revenge plans. You don't have to act on them now, or even soon. Wait till the whole thing blows over. By the time you think about these plans again, you'll have lost interest in the whole getting revenge thing.
Saturday, November 22, 2008 - 08:07 pm, by: Ben Kelly(Ace)
Leave revenge for testosterone fueled teenagers. Its not like they raped your dog and kicked your wife. Bad stuff happens in life and after all they were kids. Im seriously surprised at the stupidity of some of the replies.
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