Get ‘Em Started Young: Bronx Mom Takes Child Shoplifting

handcuffsGive a boy a Goldfish snack, he’ll eat for a day. Teach a boy to steal one, he’ll eat for life! I’m assuming this is the adage this mom had in mind yesterday.

From the New York Post:

A Bronx mom allegedly took her 6-year-old son on a shoplifting trip, threatened a deli clerk with a stun gun ”” and then blamed the boy for the whole thing, authorities said. Yvette Ray, 23, was arraigned in Brooklyn Criminal Court last night on robbery, weapons and child endangerment charges.

The duo stole a “Sunny D and a Goldfish” according to a store employee. And if the idea of a mom taking her child shoplifting isn’t weird enough on its own, the video surveillance seals the deal. The video shows a little boy walking into the store carrying, but not using, a crutch (??) and then he proceeds to steal a snack and walk out. Meanwhile, the mom is carrying (using?) the other crutch. She takes a beverage, leaves slowly, and is confronted outdoors by the clerk.

If it were me, I probably would’ve just returned the snack or offered to pay for it or whatever. Pulling a stun gun would only aggravate the situation, no?

But I won’t pretend to know what this family is going through. Maybe they’re starving. Maybe she’s unemployed and just trying to keep herself and her son alive. My instinct is to chastise her for encouraging her son to steal, but then again, even if he hadn’t done any stealing that day, he’d probably learn to do it eventually after watching his mom do it — especially if this is a regular thing. But then blaming the whole thing on a 6 year-old? And then pulling out a stun gun? I don’t know.

(photo: RTimages/shutterstock)

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