Daughter, dad butt heads over her cell phone, but 911 call backfires
An Ohio man pulled the dad card and laid down the law when it came to his daughter's cell phone
A suburban Cleveland teen-ager wasn’t having it when her father took her cell phone away because he thought she was too young to have one, WKYC is reporting.
The 16-year-old girl was irate when she called the 911 dispatchers in South Euclid, Ohio, on Saturday.
“My father took property, which is an $800 phone that doesn’t belong to him,” the girl explained to 911. “He didn’t buy it.”
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Even though the situation was not a fire, a shooting or some other real emergency, responders were obligated to follow up, Lt. James Wilson of the South Euclid Police Department told WKYC.
“Certainly, if we were busy, it would be pushed to the backburner,” Wilson said.
When four patrol cars responded, they found Anthony Robertson and his teen daughter in a standoff.
“I want my phone,” the teen insisted.
“I took her phone because she’s a juvenile and I don’t want her to have it,” Robertson told the responding officers, explaining his not-playing stance. “I can’t inspect it because the phone is locked, so I took it away,” Robertson said.
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The teen countered with saying she only stays with her father sometimes, and lives with her grandmother the rest of the time.
“It’s my property and I don’t live here,” she told police.
Since things were quiet in South Euclid that afternoon, police decided to take the opportunity to make the incident a teachable moment. They sided with Robertson and explained to the teen girl how life works.
“Guess what?” one officer said to the 16-year-old. “Everything that you own belongs to your mother and your father. Having a phone is not a right.”
Robertson chimed in, “It’s a privilege.”
After giving the teen a talking to about reserving 911 for real emergencies, the police posted about the incident on their Facebook page. The situation resonated with the public, who shared the post more than 300 times. Commenters logged opinions on both sides of the debate.
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