When I read the headline this morning:
Siblings, 9 and 7, make 100 calls to Hawkins County 911 in less than eight hours
I thought to myself , oh, “I would so ground those kids for life!,” “How can they play on the phone without the parents noticing?” and “Hmph, my kids would never do anything like that because I supervise them.”
Smell that. It’s my air of superiority.
Then… four paragraphs down – after the parents are named and the local police have tracked the calls, apprehended the hardened elementary-school criminals and confiscated the phone as evidence for possible legal action. (By this time, in my mind’s eye, they’re tattooed 3rd graders, who skip vacation bible school, and their mother dips snuff and wrings the necks of her own chickens) – we discover:
The police report states they were using a mobile phone that had not been activated.
The mother has also commented on the story and claims authorities told her she could be facing one year in jail.
Wait? What? You can dial 911 from an unactivated phone? Is this something I knew? Holy crap. My children have a collection of cast-off cell phones with the batteries are fully charged in order to access the games and calendar function. I’ve no clue to whom they’re talking or what they’re dialing… I assumed it was an imaginary Hannah Montana or Tony Hawk. But it’s entirely possible….
I started getting nervous. My air of superiority soured. One year? In jail? Hell, they didn’t even break a record.
I guess this means I should confiscate the phones…. or I could sit the children down and have a discussion with them. Something like:
“You know those old cell phones you play with?”
“Yeah.”
“From now on, you can only play with them in the neighbor’s yard. If, at any time, you hear someone on the other end of the line, you are to hang up and leave the phone on his porch.”
