It turned from a brazen crime to a parenting moment.
Recently, Teddy Lind and her two children Felicia, 10, and Kaiden, 7, woke up to find the family’s Xbox missing.
“We woke up and pretty much right away that morning we noticed our Xbox wasn’t on the table in the living room where it was the night before,” Lind said. “I woke up a little bit faster then and asked the kids what happened. Both said they didn’t know and they thought someone must have broken in while we were sleeping and taken it,” she said.
Lind, a suspicious mother right from the start, didn’t buy her children’s story and decided to look around after they’d left for school.
“I spent the next while looking because it seemed pretty unbelievable someone would come to our place and come in our house and take an Xbox. I searched in my daughter’s room and I searched in my son’s room and looked everywhere but I couldn’t find it anywhere. So then I thought, ‘obviously, it’s gone and someone took it, so I need to call the police.'”
The family lives rurally in a home just off the highway between Keremeos and Hedley.
She made a call to the Keremeos RCMP detachment to report someone entered the home while the family was sleeping and stole at least one item – seven-year-old Kaiden’s Xbox.
Cpl. Brain Evans of the Keremeos detachment attended the home shortly after the call, highly concerned someone was breaking into homes while residents were sleeping.
“He took it really seriously. He came out and looked around the premises and took pictures of footprints and went and talked to all our neighbours,” she said.
Lind also made a plea on Facebook by putting a note on one of the community groups about the missing Xbox and cautioned area residents a no-good thief was on the loose.
“When the kids came home I told them the police had been there and I reported that someone had broken into our house,” she said. “Felicia says “Kaiden, Kaiden, come with me,’ and I think, ‘you’ve got to be kidding me. So, she pulls it out. It was buried in her closet because she was mad at her brother.”
Lind said she didn’t get mad but rather decided to use the situation as a parenting moment to reinforce why lying is a bad idea.
“I told Felicia that we were going to see Cpl. Evans and tell him what happened and she’ll tell you that she could feel all of the blood drain from her head,” she said.
Cpl. Evans told the Review he was impressed with how Lind handled the situation.
“I was glad to help explain the importance of telling the truth. I was also glad to know that we didn’t have someone breaking into homes while people were sleeping. The initial circumstances were very concerning as this type of break and enter is not that common.”
As for Felicia – well, she sure is sorry.
“I learned not to lie,” she said with a voice full of remorse. “I’m sorry I upset everyone.”
When asked why she hid the Xbox, she said, “I just get really annoyed because he screams when he doesn’t win on the Xbox,” she said.
As punishment Felicia was grounded for two weeks, and had to write lines saying “I will not lie to my mom.”
She also had to write a note to those in the Facebook group.
“Today January 30th. I hid my brothers x-box Because I was Mad,” the letter reads. “My mom asked if I hid it and I lied and said no. And NO one broke into our House. I have learned my lesson. And that lesson is not to lie to Enyone!”
