Drama in the 'Hood

Saturday:
Just the twins and I at home.  They played outside.  They played at the neighbors' house.  The neigbors came to our house.  I played outside with all of them.  You get the idea - a typical Saturday at our house.

Sunday:
Gone most of the day.  Arrive home to find neighbor kids plus two more.  B and the twins all play outside until dinner.  After dinner, I leave for awhile.  When I return, L asks where I have put the rent money we have collected.  I hadn't moved it.  Honestly, I hadn't given it any thought.  So we sit down and think through how much should be there and who had been in our house lately.  We decide it must have been one of the neighbor kids, as the other two never came in the house except to follow me in to get a drink of water.

It's late, so L says he'll stop and talk to the neighbor mom (NM) on his way to work.

Monday:
I tell B that some money is missing.  I ask him to listen on the bus to see if there is any reason I should question his friends or talk to their parents, such as someone bragging about finding money, going to buy something, etc.

Monday afternoon, I get a call from the NM.  She is at the school.  She has gotten there and confronted her son, who has taken the money to school and PASSED IT OUT!!!  She has gotten him to name the kids with whom he shared the wealth.  They have been confronted and have given the money back.  She is calling to see how much money it was so she knows if she needs to twist a few more arms.

Monday evening, shortly after I arrive home, she shows up at my back door with an envelope, an apology, and "permission" to press charges.  I call L to give him the scoop.

Monday night, L, NM and I sit to down to discuss next steps.  She is perfectly OK with us pressing charges, even though L tells her that it will stay on her son's record until he is 18 and that there will be a fine, which the parents usually end up paying.

Tuesday:
We are trying to take into consideration who should be charged, if anyone - only the boy who took the money (and his parents by default)?  The "receivers of stolen property", if the point is to teach them all a lesson?  What to tell B, who has to ride the bus and go to school with these boys and would like to be able to consider them friends?

Wednesday:
Still debating whether or not to proceed with charges.  If we do, an 11-year old boy gets his first visit from the police.  This would be a valuable lesson, if learned.  I say "if" because he took more than $1200, which was not laying in plain sight, had the stupidity to take it to school and tell people about it (all of whom agree it came from him), and still insists that he got it from another boy, who just happened to give him the largest share.  Yeah, his parents are hoping we can use the law to teach him a lesson.  In the interest of maintaining what's left of our friendship, I hesitate to tell them that I have my doubts this will be his last interaction with the po-po man.