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A rowdy sleepover party in Connecticut ended with a grandmother in handcuffs on Sunday morning.
Middletown police charged 71-year old Barbara Aiello with two counts of risk of injury to a minor after alleging she forced two children, ages 11 and 10, to walk home alone at 4:30 am Sunday in frigid temperatures.
"I said you you and you out. Everybody out," said Aiello, who has been raising her grandson, Christopher, since his father died last year.
"I opened the door. Not thinking. Not realizing the time. I was angry and said 'go home'."
Aiello says she had a lot on her mind that night. Her husband was in intensive care at Middlesex Hospital because of complications following a stroke.
She says the kids, who she believed to be 12 or 13, were being very loud. After repeated warnings to stop, she decided the sleepover was over.
"When things got out of hand, I went up there. I was very angry and said both of ya's -- out!"
Police say they were contacted by one the children's parents Sunday morning when they awoke to find the kids unexpectedly home.
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Handcuffs, fingerprints and sitting in a cell were not things this grandmother ever experienced before.
"I felt like I had murdered somebody. That's how I was treated."
Aiello says she has yet to hear from either of the children's parents and wishes they had called her before contacting police.
"Why didn't they come over and say Mrs. Aiello, 'Why did you throw my kids out at 4:30-5 in morning?' None of that."
Middletown police say the case is continuing to be investigated. Aiello is scheduled to appear in court on February 11th.
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She was distressed over her husband's illness and the trials of raising a young child at her age, and probably didn't have the patience to be holsting a children's sleepover at that time. The kids got too loud, she lost her temper and with it her reason. Good thing she didn't have a gun.
Just because you may resort to using a gun, doesn't mean that anyone else would.
A parent of three myself, i would be somewhat angry that my mother sent my young kids home in the cold at that time in the morning. On the other hand, these kids are basically teenagers and know right from wrong. When i was a kid if you were being disrespectful and didn't listen, you got your butt beat. The problem with this country is that UNCLE SAM takes the parenting ability out of the hands of the parents, and if you dare discipline your child, your a criminal. Those childrens parents and the courts ought to be ashamed of yourselves for charging a overwhemed 71 year old grandmother. Serves the kids right. If you didn't want to walk out in the cold you should have had more respect for your elders instead of being little heathens. More discipline and less coddling of American children and we wouldn't have kids bringing knives, guns and drugs into schools. This country probably wouldn't have the multi-million dollar juvenile detention centers, probation and court issues if the judicial system pulled its head out. You can't do anything in this supposedly free country without it being a serious crime. Even though this is still supposedly a free country, I for one am SICK and TIRED of the government sticking their where they don't belong. Not every citizen needs a damn babysitter. If the judicial system and the government spent more time fixing serious issues instead all this petty crap this country would be considerably different. Im a VERY concerned citizen for the future of this once great nation!!!!
She was tired, crabby cause the kids were loud and it was 2am, she was wrong, lucky the kids made it home, the parents should have called her and yelled at her about the situation, not the police, but, that is what people do now a days, call the cops and sue!!!
Grandma made a judgement call, sure maybe it wasn't the best time of day to be sending the kids to walk home but it doesnt seem like they lived that far, they made it home ok, no harm no foul. I don't think she should have been arrested, I think one parent got too pissy about the situation and took it way too far calling the police. The kids should have been raised well enough to understand how to behave as a guest in someones home, shoot if my kids would have been that disrespectful I would cheerfully have gone to the house and spanked my child for being loud and disrespecting her rules no matter what time of day. I don't think the police should have arrested her, maybe gone to the house to investigate and explain "hey you do know it was 4:30 in the morning and that wasn't the best thing to do" but throw her in jail? Really? Don't we have far more important actual criminals to lock up?! Ugh one more example of ignorance. It's ok Grandma, what you did wasn't THAT bad hell my son is off to the school bus at 6:30am everyday by himself at 11 yrs old which isn't that much different, should I have the school board officialls arrested for making him walk to the school bus stop every morning at that hour? HAHA
First of all I don't think a 71 yr old should be keeping a 10 or even 12 year old. Is there no other family member who are ytounger to do this? She should have called the parents to come get them. I for one wouldn't let my kids go to a sleep over at an elderly person's house. Even if there wasn't any problems going on there. My heart goes out to her. And shame on the other parents for not checking to see what was going on first. She was wrong period....but so were the parents of the children (seems like they just wanted to get rid of the for the night).
Too many grandparents do not have a choice in the matter as the child's parent is dead or irresponsible.
you expect somebody worried about their mate in the hospital to think clearly especially that old=what about the cops and the parents of the brats==they should be locked up for cruelty to elders==
Granted maybe a sleepover wasn't a good idea, but it happened, they showed no respect...believe me, I raised 4 kids, sleepovers can be quit wild...if they don't listen they should have been sent home...same condo, I'm pretty sure they were safe walking home.....Have you had 11-12 year olds at your house?? I'm tired of...Poor Johnny, he said he didn't do it...that's the problems with the world today...no respect. This woman don't need any charges against her...maybe even a congratulations for speaking up and doing what a lots of parents would love to do...but here it is again, kids are right (no matter what) and the grama wrong....thank God they weren't at my house...granted a phone call would have been nice, but I'm sure she had reached the end of her rope, I'm pretty sure she just didn't do it out of the blue, I'm pretty sure warnings had been given....This is a learning experience but I doubt if these kids learn anything....Give the grama a break and drop the charges.
There was a time when sending two kids, not little by the way, home for being rowdy wouldn't have been an issue at all. What the parents of these kids did should be in question. Why didn't they ask the grandmother what happened instead of calling the police? As a parent I would have been embarrassed by the reason my kid was sent home and I would have supported the grandmother and made my kids apologize but now parents never make their kids accountable. They support their kids no matter what the behavior. It is a "not my kid" world now. Hopefully the backlash these parents are receiving now will make them question their decision, but I will bet it won't.
I doubt it. Today's society caters to the lawless. It's part of why the kida were killed in Newtown.
I'm gonna throw a little different spin on things - as we age, our sleep cycles are often much different than when we were younger. Often times the elderly wake very, very early in the morning and nap during mid-day, so 4:30am may not have seemed early to her. Exhausted from being with her ill husband, she may have been asleep (or tried to be) by 9pm - so, 4:30am could logically have represented her waking time after a full night of sleep time.
As to the brats - something seems sorely lacking from their parents. When I was a kid, if allowed to go to a sleepover, the idea of being disruptive in someone else's house would have been completely alien to me. It was an unspoken rule - if you were in someone else's house you obeyed their rules, and you didn't push the envelope. If they said it was time to go to bed, you did so without question. These kids were disrespectful, period.
If the kids only had a short distance to walk, within a complex, at their ages I don't see the harm. Would-be kidnappers don't typically select a couple of kids walking together, at 4:30am, in the snow, and if it was within a complex (generally with lots of utility lights), I do wonder how close a roadway would have been in proximity to the path the kids had to take. My point to that is I question the actual potential for a kidnapping. How many parents let their kids go play "down the block", "on the next street over", etc.? How many of those parents stand and watch their kids (at that age a kid should be considered responsible enough to make it from point A to point B)? Yes, she could have called the parents, but then again the kids could have called also.
Likely, grandma was cuffed because she resisted arrest, but IMO she shouldn't have been arrested anyway. The parents were ticked off, likely embarassed about the kids' behavior - and rather than recognizing those same kids would still have been at grandma's house had they behaved, they shifted blame to her... and if she is found guilty of the criminal charges, they will have great potential for an open and shut case in a civil suit. Yeah, I smell a rat.
This woman is elderly. Back in her day it was no big deal to allow children off that age to walk home alone at night. 4:30am in the cold is not right, but the womans husband is in the hospital and she admited she duidn't realize the time. She was angry. Its not easy to control other peoples kids. The parents were wrong to call the police. They should have spoke with the woman. The kids were home and safe. As a parent I would have let that go and not allowed my child to sleep over there again.
Parents probably never checked with the grandma to see if it was okay for their kids to be there to begin with. If so, they would have realized the grandmother did not need them there under the circumstances. It's okay for them to send their kids to someone else to raise, but call the police if they disagree with the other party. If grandma had been younger, maybe she could have busted their asses like they needed, and she would have been charged for that. Well, at least now maybe she won't be bothered with them wanting to stay over any more, and won't allow them to. If they did not want to walk home in the cold, maybe they should have behaved themselves a little better, and been more considerate of the elderly woman. She should not have had to ask them even once to behave, much less several times. This to me indicates the type of raising the kids have at home. I would be curious to know if the parents had complained to school officials for their children behing mistreated by school officials. If someone has any doubts about where their kids are going to spend the night they should keep them home. Under the circumstances, the parents probably should have been offering to keep the grandmother's grandson and help her out a little, instead of putting more on her while her husband was in the hospital. I think her arrest was bull@!$%#.
I wonder just how many "blocks" these kids had to walk. Not saying it's right, but the lady is 71 years old I'm in my 30's and it's hard for me to put up with a couple obnoxious children at 4:30 am during a sleepover..js
Well, Really R U Kidding Me!!The Cop could have and should have issued a summons to appear.But we all know there is a special places for PEOPLE that treat other peps like this,That being said Yes i would have been angry to know my child was put out in the middle of the night but, really!! PARENTS,I guess she the one that should have called the POLICE and HAD THE KIDS taken to JAIL.... in a world like we live in we dont handle matters on our own,we think "oh no,call the POLICE" For Real people!!!!Get Off YOUR BUTTS and HANDLE MATTERS FOR YOURSELVES!!! And TEACH YOUR CHILDREN HOW TO BEHAVE! THEY ARE ONLY ACTING OUT WHAT KIND OF PARENT YOU ARE...had it been my kids i they would not have been able to sit for a week but it would have never gotten that far with because i would have told the lady, myself,CALL ME if my kids act like they are ANIMALS....
good for grandma
What a bunch of wimps!!! My parents taught us how to take care of ourselves. If I had walked home @ 4:30 in the morning, my parents would have whooped my butt! No time out! No grounding! No taking away priviledges! A good old fashioned trip to the woodshed. I am a better person for it. Parents these days are P---ies! They let their kids run all over them! I remember my mother saying to me and I quote "I am your mother, not your best friend!" Right before she popped my backside and sent me to my room. This lady did the right thing and those parents should be ashamed of themselves for raising such ill behaved little brats!
They r afraid 2 punish their children. There should b a law that expecting parents take parenting classes. Parenting takes a lot of work, people don't like that.
The only problem with that is spanking your children is child abuse in a lot of states. D!@@## if you do, D!@## if you don't. To bypass having to ever deal with little brats, I just let my biological clock run out without having any children. My life has been rough enough through no fault of my own to have raised a kid anyway. I have Asperger Syndrome, and even though I don't "act up" like a lot of people expect you to if you have Aspergers, employers have not been open-minded in dealing with me even though I actually do my work and mind my own business, and actually SHOW UP for work, which is more than the twenty-somethings are willing to do these days even though employers favor the young bucks over experience, work ethic, and common sense. Plus, I would never want a kid to have to inherit my Aspergers and have a horrible life like I have.
Andrews82nd
This person right here is what has gone wrong with our society. Did you read what he said?
Grandma needs to learn a hard lesson!
Should we have grandma busting rocks at Levin-worth? Or maybe a public caining?
Do you actually believe that Grandma started this whole problem herself? Because she's stupid? So maybe her not being born at all is your solution to this problem?
The only stupid person here is you. Theirs nothing wrong with Grandma. The kids wouldn't behave! Grandma had enough. Get the hell out. Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out. GET OUT!
The kids know where they lived and I'm sure had their own cell phones to call mom and dad. They survived! So lets not charge Grandma for what mite have happened. That ridiculous.
The fact that they had no respect for this lady goes to show you how well they have been raised by their parents. Mabey the so called authories should look into the homelife of these kids. There was a time when if an adult told you to do something you did it, and if you did not do as you were told then your parents would beat your ass when you did get home. Somebody is looking for a free lunch out of this. This lady will probably gets sued by some scum lawyer that is representing these scum kids and their parents.
and grandma should countersue for their failure as parents in teaching their children how to act when they are guests in other peoples' homes. It is not that hard to do. When I was their age, I knew how to conduct myself properly and did, and I have Aspergers, which would mean to a lot of people that I don't know how to behave, but I know how and I DO behave. I STILL get wrongfully accused by people. I guess I am just going to have to start standing up for myself instead of being so afraid of people so ready to victimize me.
The parents of the kids are in the wrong, and do not have a leg to stand on. I don't care if they called the police, and the elderly woman was arrested. It was wrong. I hope and pray the older woman gets some justice out of this. What they probably will do is haul her off to a nursing home, confiscate all her belongings, and put the proceeds in the city coffers-out of reach of the woman-just to see how much they can get away with violating the search and seizure part of the Constitution.
It is because the woman was elderly and frail, and the police had someone to bully. If I were the Grandma, I would sue the police department for intentional infliction of emotional distress and wrongful arrest. I would get the best mafia bully attorney I could afford and go at it. This is from someone who has been treated somewhat like the grandma though I have never been arrested for anything. I've been accused of made up and trumped up infractions just because I have Aspergers, and when you have Aspergers, you are a pariah, and become everyone's target. It is society trying to get people they don't like so depressed they off themselves. And no, I am not going to do that. I have to find some way of fighting back that won't get me into trouble. I'm with the Grandma on this because I know how it feels to be wrongfully accused even though maybe she should have called the parents at that time in the morning. The parents apparently never taught their brats how to behave at someone else's house, so the heat cannot all be on grandma. That is my take on this.
Arrest the rowdy little disrespectful bästards for disturbing the peace. Since it's illegal to spank your kids anymore, let them spend the weekend in jail!
If one of those were my kid, he'd be one sorry punk! He'd be cleaning that woman's house for a month as punishment.
Good idea. Kudos!
I had a daughter that denied to listen to me and she spent 3 days and four nights in jail when the cops picked her up from the place I told them she would be at. She had a BAC of .304 and was only 15 years old. Hmmm, she listens and does as told more now than ever before but she is now 17 and thinks I wont do it again. Shes making reservations right now for her next sleepover with her unruly crowd of teenage brats behind bars. All I got to do is make the call.
Just shows what POOR parents the kids have to send them on an elderly lady with so much going on in her life - if they KNEW her well enough, they would have known that. Keep the brats at home!!!!
Parents expect everyone ELSE 2 parent their children, but themselves. Obviously, these children have no respect 4 anyone. I hope this is the LAST sleepover they ever go 2. Those parents who called the police, check your parenting skills. Maybe u shouldn't have had any children. Children r a LOT of work, folks. NOT little dolls 2 play with.
If the childs parent would have taught the child to respect others and there homes they would still be havng there sleep over!! My grandparents would have at least whooped the kids first and sent them home and then the kids would have got whooped at home for being disrepectful and someone elses home!!!! Enough said!!!!!
The Grandmother should have called the police and told the kids if they dont do as they are told, they will be their ride home. To many kids now days are pushing their elders to the limit. The kids had a choice. They chose to continue to scream and holler at 4:30 in the damn morning. They declined to do as they are told and the Grandmother gets arrested. Talk about ONE SCREWED UP COUNTRY!!!!!!!
I believe there is a generational issue going on here. 40 years ago when she was raising kids...that would be a normal response to misbehaving kids. Now they are coddled and have no respect for anyone.