Kindergartner Adorably "Snitches" On His Dad After He Ran A Red Light
Updated July 13 2018, 11:22 a.m. ET
I grew up with a pretty strict cultural/religious background, which meant that lots of vices were off the table while my siblings and I were coming up.
There was no going out to party, no drinking, no drugs, no smoking (which didn't stop me), no dating boys or girls, and no inconveniencing other families with your presence by overstaying your welcome at someone else's house.
As my siblings and I got older, and our parents saw that we were semi-capable of taking care of ourselves, they seemed to care less and less about their religious rulings and didn't pretend like their lives were over because they discovered one of their kids was into smoking pot or had the occasional boozy night out.
But there's one rule in my family that can never be broken, and it's that snitching will never, ever, EVER be tolerated. By child or adult.
I remember my mother, the sweetest woman in the world, getting the coldest, most callous look in her eyes when I told her I was thinking of telling the teacher that this one kid had done some base, elementary school nonsense. She made it very clear to me that I'd be doing no such thing.
As far as pretty much everyone in my immediate family knows - snitches get stitches and end up in ditches. If there's a problem between you and your friends or even your neighbors and inner community, you're not going to run to the cops and get them involved in the drama—you're going to take care of it yourself.
And don't even get me started on petty nonsense like calling the police when your neighbors decide to turn up on a weeknight, keeping you and your kids from having a restful night's sleep.
Which is why I don't know whether to laugh or gasp at the way 6-year-old Robert reacted to his father running a red light.
That's right, this adorable little guy was so aghast that his own father would have the gall to run a red light that he picked up the phone and did what he had to do: call the police and snitch on his own dad.
The Quincy Police Department in Massachussetts answered the phone call and loved it so much they posted the whole thing to their Facebook and YouTube pages.
Here's what the little tattle-tale said.
"My daddy went past a red light. It was in the brand new car -- my mommy's car. We had to go to the car wash and then we went past the red light."
If you're wondering what makes this young boy have such a strong affinity for law enforcement that he's willing to call the cops on his own father, it's that he dreams of becoming a police officer when he grows up.
Robbie even told his dad, Mike Richardson, that he was going to do it, a threat that his father didn't take seriously.
"He said he was going to call 911. I just kind of blew it off a little bit, you know, he's 6 years old," Richardson told CNN.
Robbie's mother, Joleen McDonald is the one who got the call from the cops informing her that her son was a low-down, dirty snitcher.
"We were cooking on the grill. Robbie went in the house and not even five minutes later he came out with the phone and was like, 'Somebody called,'" she said.
Dispatcher Mike Bowes called Robbie's parents house, laughing the entire situation off.
Richardson was immediately apologetic for his son wasting the dispatch's time, but Bowes said he was happy to get a call of that nature, especially considering the other types of calls his team routinely gets.
McDonald says that she taught her son how to dial 911 after watching a particularly sad news story with him on TV about a boy who called 911 when his sister was choking.
"I was watching the news and I saw a little kid called 911 because his sister was choking. So I told Robbie about 911 and I had him write it on a sheet of paper in case anything ever happened."
Ultimatey, McDonald is proud of the call her son made. Because the little man did think he was doing the right thing, and who can fault him for that?
"He thought he was doing the right thing. It brings a little humor to the world. That's what we need these days."
Still doesn't change the fact that he's a snitch.
