my daughters cell phone was stolen?

Question

stolen from her locker, she shares her locker. she says she locks her locker, but her locker-mate doesnt. she's 15. we have an old phone she could use, not nearly as nice. i can (a) have her use the old phone. (b) let her have my phone and i can use the old phone. (fine with me) (c) replace the phone at around $175. my wife is blaming my daughter for leaving the phone in the locker. it's questionable whether my daughter knew that her lockermate leaves the locker unlocked or not. i feel bad for her because she was violated, but is she at fault and needs to be taught a lesson?

Answer 1

I think that realistically the old phone should be fine. I think that our kids are using cell phones way too much. Last month our daughter sent almost 5000 text messages and that is totally insane. She can't do any of her chores without the phone and at night people call her and text message her at really late hours. She is 17 and in her last year of highschool but I wish we would have never bought her the cell phone since she now has a dependency to her cell phone. She can't take a shower without it in the bathroom even.

Answer 2

Let her have the nicer of the two phones. If you are like me as long as you can make and recieve calls you're happy. Dont throw good money after bad, Your daughter does bear some of the responsibility. She should not be rewarded with a brand new phone when her last grew legs. Maybe a little harsh, but realistic. I would have her power off her phone and keep it in her bag with her at all times instead of leaving it in her shared locker. You can never trust the locker mate again.

Answer 3

I don't think that she's completely at fault, though you have to think about what she could have done to prevent the situation from happening at all.
On one hand, I realize that she may not be allowed to have cell phones in class and wants to be careful by placing it in her locker so as to not have it go off in class, should she forget to turn it off.
On the other hand, if she already knew or had problems with her locker buddy not locking the locker, she should have addressed that problem with that person. She should have let the other person know that she keeps valuables in her locker, and needs it to stay locked.
Despite this, I don't think that the blame should really go to your daughter, she had no way of knowing that her phone would be stolen. She herself took all precautions against having it stolen, by making sure to lock it up. If her locker mate "forgets" or is too lazy to lock the locker, she should definitely confront them.

Answer 4

Why didn't you ever call your number over the 3 weeks and hear it ringing in her bag or something? Or shut off the service? You could have looked at the bill online and saw that the calls were still being made and figure things out from there. OMG, my mom uses her phone every day. She would have found it and been mad then. Anyway, tell her she won't get a phone for X amount of time. You gotta make the punishment fit the crime. Take her laptop away for like a week too. Ew to the people who say to beat her. She will HATE you if you do that. That's such a violation. Hello, 14!

Answer 5

My 13 year old HAD a cell phone....and rules to go with the use of the phone. She took her phone to school (she was proud of it & wanted to show it off to her friends). The fact remained that she was not to take it to school for the very reason you are talking about-theft. So she no longer has a cell phone. It is a luxury. And unless you are made of money, I would have her use the old one (for a while to teach the lesson). It may not be her fault that it was stolen. But, come on, how many people does she need to call while she is in school?

Answer 6

First of all, she should know better than to leave something that valuable just laying in a locker when anyone else has access to it. Why does she share her locker anyway? Most schools have more than enough lockers for all the kids to have their own. A punishment that makes since is where she has to take responsibility for her actions and pay for at least half if not 3/4 of the phone cost. I'm assuming you already bought her the first phone, you shouldn't be handi-capped for her lack of judgment. In my opinion she should have to foot the bill if she wants a replacement.

Answer 7

I would make her use the old phone for awhile and then maybe if she realizes she needs to carry it in a purse or something instead of leaving it in her locker....then I might replace it......It is all about teaching responsibility......wether it was her locker mates fault or not.......she should have had it turned off and in a purse or bookbag with her....you don't trust people to protect your expensive things.....you make sure you do for yourself...

Answer 8

yeah it's her fault because if you share a locker with someone you not suppose to leave your valuables in the locker i say give her the old phone so that it can teach her a lesson

Answer 9

Just have her phone replaced. It is really not her fault why her cellphone was stolen. She made to a point that her locker is secured. Let her be just careful at all times.

Answer 10

i guess whenever you share a locker, you wouldn't want to keep anything valuable in it. it's a relatively cheap lesson learned the hard way, but i think she should probably use the older phone, just so that she will learn not to keep valuables in her locker. enforce that lesson.