Nothing boat related here ... other than the fact that I spent almost no time at Kurtis' shop when I was going to drill out the brackets for my bunks. (Thanks, Kurtis, for having that angle cut) ...
So, here goes.
We send the kid off to school yesterday. He leaves the house at 7:20 to catch the bus. By 7:30, Courtney notices her engagement ring is missing. Immediately she told me about seeing our son, yesterday, looking at her oddly and she felt un-nerved then but didn't know what to do about it. She thinks he took the ring then, and maybe took it to school to show it off. We searched the house. I went through every pocket on every dirty article of clothing, crawled on the floor with a flashlight, even started tearing out ductwork ... wedding band, watch, earrings were all together in the same place all the jewelry goes when she takes it off - we settled on waiting until he came home from school.
4:00, I sit him down at the counter in the kitchen and tell him that I wouldn't ask any questions, and there would be no consequences if he could put the ring back. He said he didn't have it, and didn't take it. I'm about 10 minutes from Kurtis' house and Courtney is on the phone sobbing - she searched his backpack and found the ring ... with the prongs wrestled back and the diamond missing. I get home and we talk to him ... letting him know he's in trouble for the lying, but the only thing we needed to know immediately is where should we be looking for the diamond. Police are on the way - at best we'll need a report to file an insurance claim.
While we wait for the police, we're looking by the new deck. I ask him to help me narrow it down. Should I be looking in the leaves on the ground, or under the deck on the concrete? He looks confused. Then, I ask if I should be looking at school, or at the house. At the house. Inside or outside? Inside. Playroom or bedroom? Playroom? Where in the playroom? By the TV? Police show up. Because of value, the crime is Felony Theft. Insurance won't pay a claim without filing charges. We can file charges against our own son, but because he's a minor, the insurance company would sue us to pay them back for the claim. So we're stuck in a circle.
Eventually, he opens up a bit to the police officer and says that on his way to the bus stop, he pulled the ring out of his backpack and used a mechanical pencil to pry the prongs open and get the diamond out. Then, he says the diamond is in his backpack. We had already checked, but check again. Then he says he was throwing his backpack in the gym and heard something "tinkle" on the floor. After an hour of getting really nowhere, the police officer offers to take him down to the station and go through interrogation - and says we should be prepared to let him spend the night at Juvenile Detention. We pack a bag for him and watch him be taken away. Then, we get asked to bring in documentation on the diamond (it's insured, appraised, certified & "gem print id'ed") ... When we show up, he says that because Aidan just turned ten, that they cannot admit him to Juv. Det. unless he is violent towards others or himself. Since he isn't, he'll have to go home with us. Also, if we press charges, there is no court for him at this age, he would only be required to see a counselor. During interrogation, with multiple officers, he finally repeats the same story a couple times - until then, all stories had been completely inconsistent. It seemed that he had the diamond between his fingers on the bus and dropped it. The police, Aidan, Courtney and some school district person meet down at the "bus barn" and go through the bus. Ta-Da! There's a diamond twinkling in the channel of the window frame ...
We're happy to have the diamond back, but heartbroken that this child could lie so easily, without any visible remorse. His mother sobbed and begged him to just tell her so that we could fix it and he yelled back at her that he didn't know anything, he didn't do anything, and he always gets blamed for things ... Well, this time he did do it. He's been in trouble for stealing a few times this school year already and things are escalating. The police mentioned something about pathological behaviors ...
We are thinking we'll have to go fundraising to send him off to a boys camp. We are not succeeding in discipline and structure in the manner he needs ... so far, we've found a promising place in Ohio that runs $36K for 18 months, minimum stay. Ouch. I'd rather pay that now to get him straightened out, rather than pay it later in fines and fees and bail money, but we don't have it sitting around. OK, I'm done. Thanks for listening.
