Anyone read about the mum getting arrested for taking her dcs ipads?

[Trumpsgoneloco]

I'm so confused by this story, parents are constantly told to be more proactive around tech - I've often confiscated screens myself & that police are too stretched to deal with stolen cars etc.

www.lbc.co.uk/news/uk/surrey-police-uk-mother-arrested-childs-ipad-vanessa-brown/

They didn't belong to her. They were the property of her ex. She lied about not knowing where they were.

To be honest it seems like the kids dad is a lot to blame here. It wasn't kids calling the police saying they'd been confiscated but a 40-year old man saying they'd been stolen and he had the address where they'd been taken. I'd hope if I reported a theft and could show where it was police would try and get it back. It shouldn't have taken so long to sort it out though, although it appears she initially lied about whether they were in the house so potentially a missed opportunity to sort it out before the whole process got going

Awful! Who is this 40 year old man who reported her though - makes you wonder what the police were told initially by him. Still a complete overreaction by them!

@Boohai even so does that warrant an arrest?!

So the kid's dad reported the iPads as stolen knowing mum had them?! Jesus. 🙄🤦

if I reported a theft and could show where it was police would try and get it back.

Lots of my neighbours have got bikes back themselves because the police won't do it.

Who is this 40 year old man who reported her though

The ex according to @Boohai it's ridiculous

Bottom of the article says this

"“Following these enquiries, officers discovered that the iPads belonged to the woman’s children and that she was entitled to confiscate items from her own children.”

So they didn't belong to the ex?

I reported my kid's GPS watch to the police as missing/stolen knowing her dad most likely had it/threw it away (he didn't want me tracking her because the court order stated that he wasn't allowed to take her out of town during visitation time and he wanted to), because he shouldn't have done that and I wanted it back.
Police just called me back a couple months later though and asked if I'd drop it because it was probably long gone by now and ex claimed to know nothing about it.

No, they were the property of her children if they were given as gifts. The mother or father can confiscate items of their children. It sounds like a vindictive ex continuing control.

It doesn't say who denied their whereabouts, it sounded from the article like the grandmother denied the whereabouts.

This is a ridiculous overreach by police.

Also how do we know she deliberately lied? if the police knocked on my door and asked about stolen ipads I wouldn't necessarily think they meant the ones I had confiscated.

I know of a (hard working, well mannered) teenage boy who had his (aggressive, unpleasant) Dad arrested for taking and then smashing up his xbox.

The boy could prove to police that he bought that xbox himself, using his own money.

He accepted that when Dad shouted him for dinner he should have responded. But felt that some warning so he could finish his FIFA game would have helped. Nonetheless the boy asserted that Dad had no right to smash up an xobox the boy bought using his own money.

It was an awful situation. The family completely broke down after this incident. Boy ended up in care.

I'm just more shocked the police actually attended it tbh.

Hmm. I wonder why she divorced him? He seems like a standup, law abiding citizen.

She could have saved herself a lot of trouble by explaining to the police that she'd confiscated iPads that belonged to her children. It sounds like the ex is a bit of a dick, but she doesn't seem to have helped her situation either.

If someone reports an iPad stolen and they find the person who has them then it seems reasonable for the police to get involved. Either the ex reported the theft in good faith or he made a false report. If the latter the police can investigate him and she can take legal action against him.

The fact she's 50, a teacher and was left traumatised by time in a police cell is irrelevant. Lots of people would be left traumatised by being in a police cell for the first time - it's only the hardened or repeat offender who isn't.

I had a friend whose former husband was an abusive piece of shit. He bought a playstation for his son for Christmas, then when the son took the PS home to his mother's house (his usual place of abode) the husband reported her to the police for 'theft'.

The police took him apart. So he then tried to continue this particular form of abuse through the family court. As it ended up being the last in a long list of similar actions the court made a ruling he was not to bring anything trivial in front of them again or there would be consequences (not sure what those would be though).

So a woman gets arrested for doing something wrong so let's blame a man for it?

He should be done for wasting police time.

@BlondiePortz , No. Mum wasn't wrong, ipads were the children's, she had a right to confiscate. No criminal act committed.
Ex may or may not be a dickhead.

Could she get her ex done for malicious harassment?

This is a really shocking story.

For me it’s clearly a case of abuse through authorities - happens all the time.
a deliberately vexatious complaint designed to cause trouble, possibly even timed for Mother’s Day.

My bigger concern is the police reaction, it’s not simply “over-zealous” it is, like the complaint, deliberate. You don’t get held for hours for a possible iPad theft when it’s clearly domestic and their are kids involved, or send police cars to schools because you think mum stole an iPad? Nor do you get bail conditions stopping you seeing your children for something like this (non abusive/non violent, not kid related)

officer involved should be fired, they are either dangerously incompetent or complicit in abuse - either one is sackable.

I’d be very keen to examine any relationships between the officer/s and the complaining man.

I completely agree with you @CheeringOnTheSmartyPants

Legally, the ipads were his ex as you can't legally own something before 16 or 18 I think.

He bought them so there are legally his. I expect a lot of animosity between the parents acting like children trying to cause trouble to the other because they deserve it without thinking of the consequences of their behaviour on their kids.

She doesn’t need to tell anyone her ex is a dickhead.