Eliza Webb opened up her car one day to discover that some of her items had been stolen. Then she noticed what the thief left behind: his cell phone.
Webb looked through his phone and discovered a contact named “mom.” Instantly, she knew the burglar must have been a teenager. Webb didn't want to involve the police if it could be avoided. Instead, she called the thief's mother and told her everything.
"I said, ‘This is a very uncomfortable phone call to make. I have your son's phone and I'm missing some things out of my car and I think they might be two related items,’” Webb told ABC News.
The mother was shocked, but she and Webb figured out what to do. Apparently, the 19-year-old admitted to robbing 10 other unlocked cars while getting drunk with a friend.
Webb said: "We knocked on the door and he answered in just sort of a defeated look. He looked like he had been crying."
His mother and Webb agreed that the teenager has to go to every home, door to door, return the items, and apologize. He apologized to each neighbor and promised not to do it ever again.
"Sometimes when you get shamed or told that you did something wrong by somebody else, it can stick," Webb said.
She prefers the young person learn a hard lesson rather than experiencing jail time for something a little remorse and understanding can fix.
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