WATERVILLE, Maine — A teenage boy who was upset his mother wouldn’t let him go to a friend’s house is facing arson charges after he tried to set fire to a couch and a table, police said.
The 13-year-old, whose name is being withheld because of his age, tried to set a couch and the kitchen table on fire using a lighter Sunday evening at the Water Street apartment he shares with his mother, Waterville Police Chief Joseph Massey said.
Massey said the boy was angry that his mother wouldn’t let him leave the house, and that’s when he allegedly grabbed the lighter.
The police chief stated the couch and table did have some burn marks, but things could’ve been worse.
“We’re not quite sure if his intentions were to burn everything down,” he said. “It could’ve turned out badly.”
After police spoke with the boy and the mother, the boy was arrested and charged with criminal attempted arson. If he’s tried as an adult, the boy could face up to 25 years in jail on the Class A felony charge.
Deputy Chief Charles Rumsey said that it’s “possible but unlikely” that the teen will be tried as an adult.
The teen was taken to Mountain View Correctional Facility in Charleston, where he remains Tuesday.
If I had behaved like this at age 13 my mother would have taken care of things without calling the police…..and I most likely would never had even thought about doing such a thing again……
Was your mother a single parent, too? Most of these things happen because the single parent – usually the mother – is at her wits end and feels that she has no control over the child. So, what’s left? Law enforcement.
Or, and as I have seen from many years in education, the parent wants to be their kid’s “friend,” and in the end, the teenager ends up running the show. Eventually, the teenager gets older and realizes that the rest of the world does not care what “mommy” thinks.
Of course, if our kids nowadays heard the word, “NO,” a little more often, they would be more used to it by the time they reach 13.
I have said “no” to kids at school before, and, quite honestly, some of them act like they have never heard the word before.
My mother was a single mother. Niether my twin brother or I would have attempted anything so stupid. If we had have tried a stunt like this the police would not have been called and it would not happen again. The problem a lot of the time is that we have let government so far into our lives that some people fear that dishing out a little a** whooping when needed will get them in trouble. This is a product of our own doing. With places like Shaw house, and others, and government telling parents how to raise their children this type of behvior is more and more common. I’m sure this child will be referred to counciling and diagnosed with some sort of ADD then given some meds.
One doesn’t wake up one morning with “no control.” You teach your kid right from wrong, at the get-go, and the most important thing of all perhaps=respect. If you have a child that behaves that way, unless they are mentally ill, then look to the parent, or lack of, I should say.
I love how they throw the book at this CHILD, but yet how many cases of abusers, murders and pedos who get much lighter sentences.
WTF is up with Maine justice?
Have they thrown the book at him yet? Has he been sentenced yet? Are we reading the same article? He has been charged, nothing more at this point.
Lets see now… Wait, don’t tell me, the boy has ADD, AHAD and EIEIO, plus all sorts of emotional problems because his Daddy left town with a YooHoo bottler about five years back. And if not, give it about a week before some shrink says so. LOL
About the last thing in the world I’d have thought of at that age was to light my mothers couch on fire and burn up my own home in the process — and that may have been the last thing I ever did right there.
Seems like another case of an adult kid trying to raise an actual kid.
The kid sounds like a prime canidate for my soon to be marketed “Uncle Binkster’s Total Freakin’ Transformation System” Designed to ensure domestic tranquility with spoiled brat kids. One size 12 Red Wing work boot applied directly to the posterior of the troubled brat ususally works pretty well and sounds like this kid is lacking a daily dose of it.
Amazing how much the posters below “know” about this case, even though none of those “facts” are in the story.
One of the problems with “quick news” is that it lacks a complete story.
Guess I’ll wait to see if this is what the paper reports, or something all together different.
Sure, the parent always gets the benefit of doubt, BUT I just came from a story where 11 and 12 year old children were abandoned in their apartment for two days by a mother with a long list of drug convictions.
In my experience responsible committed parents handle amily problems without calling the cops. I wasn’t there, maybe this case is different.
As I say lets wait and check out urther developments.