Posted on 04/11/2009 11:07:50 AM PDT by freespirited
Dena Christofferson is 13 years old. She likes to send texts. Lots of texts. She particularly likes to send texts at school.
In fact, in a recent month she sent 10,003 of those curt little messages. And received almost 10,000.
Her parents were a little surprised at this. Not because she told them. But because Verizon sent them a bill for $4,756.25.
You see, Gregg and Jaylene Christofferson, from Cheyenne, Wyo., thought texting on little Dena's phone had been disabled. And $4,756.25 is a lot of money.
"It hit us like a rock," Gregg told NBC's Channel 9 News in Colorado.
Rocks can sometimes rain down in multiples, so perhaps it wasn't entirely a surprise that Dena's school principal called to say she had suddenly achieved five Fs in a semester. Strange that he didn't text, but still.
This was one rock too many for Gregg Christofferson. He got out his hammer and smashed that Verizon phone into several pieces.
You might be impressed that the phone was so resilient that merely tossing it against a wall, ripping it apart with bare hands, or crunching through it with sharp teeth appear not to have been good options.
Dena says she has learned her lesson. Her grades are soaring up to their former levels. Though perhaps it has helped her studies that she has been grounded.
Verizon is, apparently, working with the family to try and have the phone bill reduced.
One can only hope that Mr. Christofferson will not have to spend endless days on film sets, unpaid, as part of the vast group of people behind that nice man in glasses in the Verizon TV spots.
Well that’s what you get for not paying attention to what your kid is doing..............
Parents are stupid to indulge their kids with this crap.
She’s gonna be mowing alot of lawns or babysitting durring this summer.
Wow. Actual parenting. In the twenty-first century. And she has an actual Dad. It's almost like something out of an historical novel.
Warms the cockles of my heart, it does.
“Parents are stupid to indulge their kids with this crap.”
Agreed.
This is all the more amusing because Verizon has an unlimited text option for an extra 20 bucks a month.
LOL.
I like the humorous spirit the article was written in.
How much higher education does 4 plus grand pay for?
Little Missy (depending on how her folks choose to settle this with her) may be spending her high school years working an after school job and paying back her folks.
If she were my kid I would have her turn over every pay check (minus a few $$$ for her own use) untill she turns 18 and then take what she owes for the bill out and what ever is left over give it back to her in the form of a car/down payment for...or what ever she is in most need of at that time to establish her journey into economic adult hood.
Just found out my daughter got busted at school Friday for her cellphone being out at school.
Hammer met cell phone and I still have a hysterical 13 year old girl on my hands.
By the way, my daughter pays for her own cell phone with a pay as you go. She earns money cleaning yards and stuff to pay for it, but it’s useless if she gets in trouble for it.
Yep, and if you don’t subscribe to it, you can block it.
Ping
“Just found out my daughter got busted at school Friday for her cellphone being out at school. Hammer met cell phone...”
Great!!!
Please keep us posted.
My congratulations.
And for $5 a month she could have had unlimited texting.
Hilarious. Verizon's "trying" to "have the bill reduced"? Um, who decides if it happens?
I so agree.
This is the phone company, more or less the same folks who have old people still renting phones and paying for them many times over, when they could have bought them years ago and have done with the charge.
It's your own fault if you get taken, but still ...
Why does a teenager need a cell phone? I didn’t have a cell phone till I was 23 and I didn’t really want it then. (I saw my peers wandering around campus yakking on their cell phones, narrowly avoiding being run over in the streets when they obliviously wandered into traffic.)
ok I’m just old.
the first thing I thought when I read the headline is “what is a kid doing in a cell?”
:::sigh:::
They need TARP funding perhaps.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.