Teen's mom sells car after finding booze

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Jim Prower

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This was too good not to share...

DES MOINES, Iowa - Jane Hambleton has dubbed herself the "meanest mom on the planet." After finding alcohol in her son's car, she decided to sell the car and share her 19-year-old's misdeed with everyone — by placing an ad in the local newspaper.

The ad reads: "OLDS 1999 Intrigue. Totally uncool parents who obviously don't love teenage son, selling his car. Only driven for three weeks before snoopy mom who needs to get a life found booze under front seat. $3,700/offer. Call meanest mom on the planet."

Hambleton has heard from people besides interested buyers since recently placing the ad in The Des Moines Register.

The 48-year-old from Fort Dodge says she has fielded more than 70 telephone calls from emergency room technicians, nurses, school counselors and even a Georgia man who wanted to congratulate her.

"The ad cost a fortune, but you know what? I'm telling people what happened here," Hambleton says. "I'm not just gonna put the car for resale when there's nothing wrong with it, except the driver made a dumb decision.

"It's overwhelming the number of calls I've gotten from people saying 'Thank you, it's nice to see a responsible parent.' So far there are no calls from anyone saying, 'You're really strict. You're real overboard, lady.'"

The only critic is her son, who Hambleton says is "very, very unhappy" with the ad and claims the alcohol was left by a passenger.

Hambleton believes her son but has decided mercy isn't the best policy in this case. She says she set two rules when she bought the car at Thanksgiving: No booze, and always keep it locked.

The car has been sold, but Hambleton says she will continue the ad for another week — just for the feedback.
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Original Link http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080109/ap_on_fe_st/odd_car_ad

I wish more parents were like her. I admire a woman like that.

I acutally got my Nova from a parent whose teen daughter didn't get her grades up, so she put it up for sale.
 
The only stipulation with my car was not having more than two people inside it for a while. That, and I just had to pay my Dad back. Maybe thats the bonus to being a good student and an otherwise "good kid" in the 'Burbs?
 
Well, obviously, your parents didn't think you the drinking type. The parents here had to suspect, at the very least, that his freinds at least did those kinds of things.
 
OMG that's just brilliant. "Call meanest mom on the planet" is definately classic material right there.
 
I don't know thats kinda harsh but then again if he lived in Canada he would get no penalty. I noticed it was in Des Moines, Iowa too, I thought that place was kinda a mess based on what Slipknot members say about it.

If she set those rules and he agreed to them then it is entirely the right thing to do.
 
i'm getting my permit soon and my mom claims that when i get my car the rules are

No tickets

No friends in the car

and no uncles

I'm allergic to alcohol so that isn't a problem and the reason why i can't have my uncles in the car is because they apparently drive like they were taught by a race car driver. or someone who has a leadfoot. they drive way too fast either way.
 
I never got any rules when I got my license, except the usual lecture about driving safe and being careful.
 
I must ask. Is it the American thing to have parents buy you a car? Because most Americans I speak to have had a car bought for them at one time or another. Whereas here it's definitely the minority. I remember a couple of weeks ago talking to Keef he was kinda shocked that I paid for everything on my own first car.
 
BayConRong
i'm getting my permit soon and my mom claims that when i get my car the rules are

No tickets

No friends in the car

and no uncles

I'm allergic to alcohol so that isn't a problem and the reason why i can't have my uncles in the car is because they apparently drive like they were taught by a race car driver. or someone who has a leadfoot. they drive way too fast either way.
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No friends in the car? Wow, that sorta makes for some lonesome drives don't ya think?
Man I feel lucky, I was never given any rules. I guess my dad had the assumption that I was mature enough on my own.
 
Casio
I must ask. Is it the American thing to have parents buy you a car? Because most Americans I speak to have had a car bought for them at one time or another. Whereas here it's definitely the minority. I remember a couple of weeks ago talking to Keef he was kinda shocked that I paid for everything on my own first car.
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Depends, I think.

Most kids where I went to High School didn't pay a cent for their first car, but I had to pay for half, and then it was my responsibility to pay for gas and insurance as well. Trust me, even that is out of place where I'm from.

There are other people I know who didn't get their first car until they were in college, so I don't know. In the US its a big thing to have a car as soon as you possibly can, and a lot of people will go into some major debt over it, so whether or not its fiscally responsible is a whole 'nother taco...
 
lmao! Oh man, this is as funny as the eBay dad that got rid of rock band/guitar hero for xmas because he caught his son getting stoned!
 
I didn't get any rules either, but I can't do certain "modifications" to it, like ripping out the ps and interior. I started taking off the ps and my dad nearly sold my car.
 
I'm not cool with taking a kids car but I'm more not cool with booze in the hands of underage drivers. 👎
The lady did well in my book on all counts except saying she believes the son. She should make it clear that booze isn't allowed and him allowing booze into the car is in no way acceptable. 👍

Very intersting story. :cheers:
 
Casio
I must ask. Is it the American thing to have parents buy you a car? Because most Americans I speak to have had a car bought for them at one time or another. Whereas here it's definitely the minority. I remember a couple of weeks ago talking to Keef he was kinda shocked that I paid for everything on my own first car.
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I would say that the majority of parents buy their kids a car. From my experience it's pretty rare to find someone that paid for everything.
 
Casio
I must ask. Is it the American thing to have parents buy you a car? Because most Americans I speak to have had a car bought for them at one time or another. Whereas here it's definitely the minority. I remember a couple of weeks ago talking to Keef he was kinda shocked that I paid for everything on my own first car.
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Not one of my friends including myself or anyone I know personally has bought their first car out of their own pocket.
 
My parents would never buy a car for their children. My sister and I were always lucky that we had a spare car in the family.
 
I got use of the family 'spare' for a year before buying my Talon, and the spare was then used by my brother for almost a year.

My parents never did set any rules, per se. The novice license here puts limitations and restrictions on your license, and although I never did break any of them, got a reminder from the folks on a regular basis.
 
I paid for my first car in full with no help from my parents. I don't recall having any specific rules on how I used the car. But then I was getting good marks in school and had never got into any real trouble. My parents couldn't have sold my car out from under me as the title was in my name.

In this case I applaud the mother for taking a stand on this and proving to her son that there are consequences for his, and his friends, actions. Especially so as she bought the car for him in the first case.
 
I used everything I had in my bank account to buy my first car. I haven't had that much cash in my bank account since. :(
 
I drove my parent's cars for ages before I bought my first car. And that's why I got no rules with mine, I'd already been driving for 2 years, so the 'rules' period was over. I did have rules when I was borrowing their car though.

My brother bought his car when he was still in highschool - and yes, he had a few rules to deal with.

I can't imagine my parents ever selling a car we had though - whether they bought it or one of us paid our own dollars for it. But I can imagine some serious grounding time being dished out, and a ban from the car even it was bought with our own money.
 
Casio
I must ask. Is it the American thing to have parents buy you a car? Because most Americans I speak to have had a car bought for them at one time or another. Whereas here it's definitely the minority. I remember a couple of weeks ago talking to Keef he was kinda shocked that I paid for everything on my own first car.
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I'm sure it's not an American thing.

One thing about the 'parents buying kids cars' issue is that I absolutely must admit I drive notably harder on my parents' dime than I would if I was on my own dime. My parents bought me my first car and I drove the hell out of it. Two years and not a single scratch on it, but lots of mechanical components failed from handbrake turns, hard acceleration in cold temperatures, triple-digit speeds, street races, and general experimentation. Parents fixed it all and the car kept soldiering on. But it wanted to quit, you could tell.

I bought car number two, but parents are still covering maintenance. So I haven't learned any lessons. I'm already on my third oil pan in seven months from bottoming out at high speeds.

Car number three is going to be paid for completely by me. I'm a little scared. I'll have to be careful.
 

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