Kid uses mousetrap to catch money-thief
Harry Cordaiy, an 11-year-old Australian boy, was tired of thieves stealing his and other students' lunch money and bus tickets from classrooms. The school administrators weren't doing anything about it, so he rigged up a mousetrap coated with green food coloring, attached a $5 bill to it, stashed it in his backpack, and waited.
He had squirted the device's main bar and metal fittings with green food colouring, cutting a small hole in the note and securing it on the bait hook with sticky tape, so that the thief would have to wrestle with it, thereby setting off the spring and getting hit with the coloured bar.To his surprise, the thieves took the bait and - after he spread the word among classmates - a witch-hunt began.
"I thought 'Oh my God, I might catch these guys'," Harry said. "Everybody was running around seeing who had green on their fingers."
One of the offenders was caught green-handed en route to the bathroom in a desperate bid to wash off the evidence. The younger boy confessed his guilt. An accomplice in the same year was also nabbed.
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"Kid uses mousetrap to catch money-thirf"
Those darn thirf's!
They drive me crazy!
Crawling up your leg, then biting the inside of your ass, I hate them!
The boy was expelled and lead of by police after being tasered. The thief's parents have sued the school and won a settlement of 15 million AUD.
Everyone's a comedian. Or, you know, not.
Can't...resist...:
"Don't tase me, mate, don't tase me!"
Reminds me of Home Alone.
I hope the trap didn't hit the poor little kid too hard. I don't like it when children are injured. I hope next time people come up with some sort of device that could dispense colour without the assault.
Poor little kid? He's a thief! Sorry if that sounds harsh, but in the world of childhood politics the kid got what he deserved.
If anyone has any complaints, please make them to the school officials who did nothing to help which is what set the foundation for this vigilante justice to take place.
#9 Childabuser.
If an adult hits another kid, that's child abuse because it's an abuse of power and trust and it's simply wrong. Adults have other methods of dealing with the world and hitting kids or putting them in harms way says an adult is clueless to how to actually behave as an adult.
If an 11-year-old kid sets a trap for another 11-year-old kid, that's completely different.
This 11-year-old appealed to adults to do something with the power they had. They responded with nothing and he did the only thing he could do.
Jack, I think Mannakiosk is pulling your leg.
Good for him. That kind of decisive ingenuity (especially in an 11-year-old) just delights me.
Sorry about the flame, Jack. I reacted rashly and harshly to your lack of sympathy for the child who presumably hurt his hand and was then subjected to a "witch-hunt".
My first reaction to the story was glee, that it served him right. Humans enjoy punishing others that break social rules, but that doesn't mean we should. Imagine the pain, shame and fear he probably felt.
Of course he should not have been stealing. I wonder why he was.
I don't think this child needs adults shouting "Thief!" at him or saying that it was ok to hurt him physically. In fact, I think not showing sympathy and understanding, but instilling shame and trying to make "thief" a label that describes his identity is counterproductive if we want to have less thieves.
I'm with jack. these kids were stealing plain and simple, and the adults weren't doing anything about it - until now. I'll bet that kid who got his fingers pinched never steals again, and is better for it. many kids experiment with stealing, until they're stopped (if they're stopped) - points to the bright kid who set the trap for bringing some sort of consequences
For those who just read the blurb but not the whole article, please read this from the boy's mother:
[The offenders] probably just didn't realise how much trouble they'd really caused. This is the northern beaches, for God's sake. Nobody is that poor.
I think that is the key difference here. We're not talking about a poor child who stole to survive, but a spoiled brat who believes everything he sees is his.
In my own experience growing up poor in New York in the 1970s/1980s, the kids who routinely stole from others were either the truly poor or the suburbanish (no real suburbs in NYC so there's my word for it) brats who thought they were "tough" by doing it.
Also, while I understand the idea of getting to the root of a problem to solve it, the vast majority of people out there DON'T commit crimes or hurt others randomly. Even here in NYC that's the case. So I really don't feel it's my job to feel sorry for petty thieves in any way. Most people are actually decent, and it's only the few cowards who ruin in for the rest.
And FWIW, I'm quite confident the trap slapping the kids finger wasn't the worst/painful part. Walking around with that green paint knowing he was tagged caused more stress and was what did him in.
I know exactly what this kid is going through, and if I could, I'd start up a college scholarship for him or something. High five for him, wish this would have worked for me. But the kids who messed with me all had gang parents, and my school administration knew it as well.
I'm not saying the kid should not have been caught. I said I felt sorry for the kid. While that did require me to try to see things from his perspective, it wasn't very much hard work.
#15: To make sure he doesn't steal again should surely not contain labeling him as a thief, but forgiving him and making sure that he feels he is welcome and that he wants to belong to the community.
#16: Kids can act out other problems than being poor by stealing.
I don't think an attitude of "Poor little kid? He's a thief!", as Jack puts it, is the right attitude to handle this. Again, I believe further stigmatization by adding insult to injury is counterproductive.
And yes, the adults at the school seem to have not done their job.
How do you set a mousetrap inside of a book bag? I can barely set one on the floor without setting it off.
Re: #8 & #18 posted by mannakiosk
It seems your post was serious, and I can't help but chuckle in response. You apparently think any type of trauma (read: catching him) is going to be detrimental to the development of a child, and thus should be avoided. What method would you pursue in the interest of discontinuing his socially unacceptable behavior?
Personally, having caught my fingers in mousetraps at an even younger age, I can attest to the pain involved. It's almost as vicious as stubbing one's toe, the impact of which can similarly be such a momentous and life-changing event. I sympathize with the child in this, and hope his fingers have recovered fully. /sarcasm
Physical pain aside (as it is a trivial consideration), you also think the public humiliation is a stigma that will damage this child's development? This also earns you a quick laugh, but I'll respond just the same. Apparently the social context of theft was pretty clear to this child, as he ran to clean the evidence from his hand immediately to avoid discovery. He was aware that there would be a social response, and he risked the act of theft just the same. Now the social response has taken place, as he expected it might, and though he may be bitter that some form of punishment is taking place, nothing is out of order about this situation.
It is an ideal situation to learn from a mistake, since he will not likely be punished via an official Court. He will be ashamed because his peers are aware of his misconduct, or he will be hailed as a child hero of sorts. If ashamed, he may not be willing to risk this behavior again. If proud of his achievement, the weight of discouraging him from theft again may be either his parents or the school system.
Regardless of the final outcome, I consider people like mannakiosk to be one of the proverbial 'problems' in our society, as they discourage our social system from maintaining itself to any manageable degree. Folding in and following the politically correct nonsense people such as mannakiosk spew is degrading to our society as a whole.
-MTS
Apparently, the kid was inspired by traps the VC set during the Vietnam war. A trip wire and claymore mines painted with green food dye would also stop this child from stealing, or any other verb as well.
Mannakiosk (13), it's nice that you apologized to Jack for your flame, but I'd very much prefer you hadn't done it in the first place, and I'm even more strongly in favor of your never doing it again.
Scythe000: in future, could you please check to make sure your jokes are funny before posting them?
Skarbreeze, Mannakiosk again: I'm not that concerned about the kid who got caught stealing. He already knew he was a thief. You don't begin a career of stealing by rummaging around elbow-deep in another kid's bookbag. That's practiced, conscious theft.
The other reason I'm not all that concerned about his tender feelings is that he'd been victimizing the other children. This wasn't some kid opportunistically grabbing a handful of quarters from the milk-money box. The two culprits committed multiple premeditated acts of theft that added up to a substantial amount of money.
Harry's mother said that "nobody is that poor" in their area; but that's no guarantee that the loss wasn't a hardship for any of the children who were robbed. And even if it's not a hardship, it's still a violation. School officials were wrong to stand by and do nothing. Theft is no more acceptable than physical bullying (which it often accompanies).
You know the most probable reason they were stealing from their fellow students? Because they could. In any human population, there'll be some people who'll steal whenever they think they can get away with it. A somewhat larger segment will steal if they see others getting away with it. The first sort needs to learn that they'll eventually get caught. The second sort needs to see thieves getting caught. The third sort, the people who aren't inclined to steal even if others are doing it, need to not lose their lunch money.