Dad Calls The Police On His 6th-Grade Daughter After 'Tricking' Her Into Taking $20 From His Wallet

"My daughter is in the sixth grade. In the last few weeks, several times I have noticed that I am missing a little bit more money than usual," a father began in a confessional, posted to Reddit's "r/AmItheA--hole" (AITA) subreddit.

The subreddit is an online forum where users try to figure out if they were wrong or not in an argument that has been bothering them.

He called the police on his daughter after planting $20 in his wallet for her to take.

He explained that he usually lets his daughter take a few dollars from his wallet every morning so she can buy school lunch, but after noticing that she had been taking more money than she needed lately, he decided to set a trap for her.

He planted $20 in his wallet before his daughter came to take the money she needed for lunch, and as soon as he noticed that she took it, he decided to enact a harsh punishment instead of talking with her or trying to figure out why she was taking the money in the first place.

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Photo: VGstockstudio / Shutterstock

"I called the police and asked them to come with me to the school so that we could teach my daughter a lesson," he wrote in his Reddit post. The two police officers arrived with the young girl's father at her school and pulled her out of class.

When they asked if she had stolen from her father and why, she informed them that she had a school bully that was forcing her to buy them school lunch with her money. She had also been using the extra money she took from her dad to buy lunch for one of her friends who was not able to afford it.

The sixth-graders story was corroborated by both her school bully and friend, but by then, the damage had already been done.

"My daughter was silent on the way home and I informed her that I was just trying to teach her a lesson, that stealing is wrong and can get you in a lot of trouble," he continued. He told his daughter that in the future she needed to tell either him or her mom about things like that happening at school instead of keeping it to herself.

However, when they got home, his wife was furious and told him that this could lead to an "estrangement from our daughter in the future," and that he should've told her about the money being stolen so they could've spoken to her about it together.

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Photo: VGstockstudio / Shutterstock

He rebutted that if he had confronted his daughter about the stolen money, he was sure she would've just lied about it. Now, his daughter is terrified that her bully will attempt to retaliate against her for snitching and evidently getting the police involved.

"My daughter apparently told my wife that she may have lost her friend for bringing so much attention to her financial issue. She apologized for stealing and said she just didn’t want us to intervene," he added. "I am wondering if I really did the wrong thing here."

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In the comments section, most people agreed that he may have taken things too far by calling the police on his daughter.

"Your daughter will never trust or respect you again, she knows she can't. You should have talked to her about it first instead of calling the police and embarrassing her in front of the entire school," one TikTok user pointed out.

Another user added that he didn't even give his daughter the benefit of the doubt instead of just jumping to conclusions, writing, "You didn't even give your daughter a chance to lie. But you did humiliate her at school, in front of her peers."

"Not only did you ruin your daughter's trust towards authorities, [but] you [also] ruined her trust towards you. A good, loving parent would give their child a benefit of a doubt and talk to the child first," a third user chimed in. "Not set up a trap and go over the top to humiliate them in front of their schoolmates."

According to clinical psychologist Emily Edlynn, via Parents.com, the right thing to do is have an in-depth discussion with them. "In your talk, figure out what motivated your child to take the money and then lie about it. There may be something deeper going on driving the behavior, like peer pressure," she claims — right on the money with this situation.

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Nia Tipton is a Brooklyn-based entertainment, news, and lifestyle writer whose work delves into modern-day issues and experiences.