STATESVILLE, N.C. — A North Carolina store owner says a boy was bothering a parrot and teaching it to swear — so he spanked him. Now he faces a misdemeanor assault charge.
William Soper says he was just defending his property.
Soper keeps eight pet parrots at his Clock World store in Statesville. He says one of them, named Sparky, began using expletives for the first time when a 9-year-old boy was at the store last month.
Soper says the boy and his 12-year-old brother also were spitting on the 6-year-old female green-wing parrot. The boys deny it.
Soper says he grabbed Matthew Bustle by the shirt, spanked him and told the boys to stay away if they couldn’t behave. Their mother called police.
If convicted, Soper could face up to 60 days in jail and a fine.
He should press charges against the mother for destruction of property. That actually may be his best avenue out of this mess. I’m sure he was trying to do the “right” thing by applying a little discipline, alas some people prefer to raise brats.
Via: Zogby Blog
I’m all sorts of with the store owner–at least in what he wanted to do. Somebody needs to teach kids like that a lesson, since their parents obviously don’t give a shit.
That said, it was a pretty dumb thing to do. The outcome was almost inevitable. Poor bastard.
I don’t think it’s ever *acceptable* to strike another person’s child, although it is understandable if there is extreme provocation.
If this is an isolated incident, he should be given a stern warning from the judge and sent on his merry way.
I know my girls wouldn’t do that in a store. There is NO excuse for striking other people’s children. Frankly, I can’t believe the mother was calm enough to the police. What the children are accused of doing is despicable and they should be punished. Whay didn’t the store owner call or page the child’s parents?
Something is very weird about this story.
I can see why the mother was furious, but I can see why the owner spanked the little shit, too. There are far more parents who care nothing about raising their children in this world than most people suspect. I used to work in a bookstore next to a movie theater, and people would drop their kids off in there while the parents went to the movie. Want to see a furious mother, watch her when the manager tells her it’s a good thing she showed up, because he was just about to call the police.
Yeah, I share the guy’s frustration big time.
I’d hate to have someone spank my kids….but then again, a spanking from someone else would be the least of my kids’ worries if they were caught doing something like these kids did
He should have spanked the mother too for not raising her child to have some fricken manners and consideration for other people’s property!
I’ll bet you that kid doesn’t do it again.
If these were my boys they would have received a good spanking from me as well as from the shop keeper. Just my opinion.