Parent called the police on son’s 13-year-old friend because he wouldn’t leave their house

A parent called the police on their teenage son’s friend because he outstayed his welcome at their house.

According to a post on Reddit, the anonymous parent called officers because their 13-year-old son’s friend wouldn’t leave the home after a sleepover. The friend’s mum also would not come and collect him, according to the thread.

The parent wrote: “My son, Brian [13] has a friend, Tom [13] who I really dislike.

“However, since Brian is on the spectrum, very few other children want to hang out with him. I have tried to tell him that Tom is using him for his Nintendo Switch, but he is unable to process that. Every time Tom comes over, he’ll hog the Switch to play one of the games (oftentimes a single-player game).”

The parent wrote that Tom came over for a sleepover and “raced right up to Brian’s room, turned on the game, and sat there for hours”.

“He played until 3am on Sunday morning, and then he woke up at 10am, and without joining us for breakfast, started playing more,” the post said.

“At around 12, Brian had reached his limit and told Tom that it was time to go home. He was tuned out completely. Brian then came to me asking what he should do, and I told him to be more assertive. An hour later, he came back, basically in tears, saying that no matter what he said, Tom was just ignoring him.

“I told [Tom] that he had to go home, and the kid legitimately looked me in the eye and said ‘No, I don’t think I will.’”

The original poster (OP) said that they then called Tom’s mother, who didn’t pick up.

“Finally, I unplugged the machine from the wall causing his game to turn off, but he attached the controller to the handheld part and sat on Brian’s beanbag chair, again impervious to anything we said,” they wrote.

“At my limit, I went into the other room and called the police. Since we live in a small town, the police officer (a good friend of ours) came right over.

“Tom finally got his act together and was taken home by the police, but on his way out I told him that he was never going to step foot in my house again. I told him not to talk to Brian at school and not to text Brian privately.”

An hour later, the parent said Tom’s mother called and “shrieked” about how “horribly” her son had been treated.

“I stayed calm and told her I had called her, but she said she was busy in a meeting and couldn’t talk,” Brian’s parents added.

“I’ve received dozens of anger-filled texts, both from Tom’s mother and numbers I don’t know. I wouldn’t care what those trashy parents think, but I wonder if they have a point.”

Responding to the post, numerous people supported the dramatic actions. One said: “You took all the proper steps. At that point, it was down to calling the police or physically dragging the little brat out of your home. Both for the child’s safety and for you not getting sued, calling the police was the right thing to do.”

Another wrote: “At first I kind of thought it was extreme just because I’ve heard too many stories of children getting in trouble with the police for things that are not that big a deal and it impacts their life forever. However in this case the police officer was OP’s friend so she was basically just asking the officer to use their position to make the kid leave with no long term impacts (at least I hope that was her initial plan). There’s no harm in that and who knows what would have happened without that option.”

However, not everyone shared this view. One said: “Apart from just taking the switch away. I mean I feel like OP didn’t exercise all of her options before calling the police and then banning Tom from ever speaking to her son again. I get that she feels like her son is being used for his Switch, but now Tom will go tell everyone else that Brian’s mom is going to call the police if you hang out with him. Brian will now be even more ostracised and have a harder time making friends, especially because it’s a small town.”

It’s certainly a statement.