Back in the day, children being used in crime or dangerous situations were well documented as part of normal life in Victorian Britain. Either Fagin style gangs of tiny thieves and pick pockets or children sent up chimneys with small hand brushes are immortalised in everything from Dickensian writings and British social history through to later day musicals and films! I remember being fascinated as a ten-year-old school boy learning in history lessons that only a hundred years previously children of a similar age were being forced up into dark dirty chimneys with nothing more than a candle and a small brush.
Over in New Hampshire recently a school teacher of all people was arrested for using a toddler to steal valuable electronic items from a specialist vending machine in a busy shopping mall. The tiny tot was wiggled up inside the machine and encouraged to pass goods out to him. Bemused shoppers seemed more interested in filming the event than stopping a theft in progress.
Although the culprit left the scene with two young children and his ill-gotten gains smart phone video of the incident went viral leading to his identification and subsequent arrest. Now placed on administrative leave from his teaching post he faces charges of theft by unauthorised taking, two counts of criminal trespass and one count of endangering the welfare of a child. You can watch the video of what I am calling the “cat flap kid” on our KSV Vending Facebook page!
https://www.facebook.com/KsvVending/?ref=bookmarks
Written by: Colin from KSV.