A mother was arrested and jailed for seven hours after she confiscated iPads from her own children because she wanted them to concentrate on their homework.
Vanessa Brown, 50, a history teacher was arrested & held for seven-and-a-half hours by @SurreyPolice for stealing 2 iPads. They were at her mother's house, who was also questioned. She had taken them away from her two daughters so they could concentrate on their homework.… pic.twitter.com/pcW2OAX1PE
— David Atherton (@DaveAtherton20) April 11, 2025
It’s the latest insane story of police overreach from the backwards UK, where stabbings are just an everyday occurrence and robberies are not even investigated, but people saying mean words about the ‘wrong’ things are thrown in prison.
Now responsible parenting is the target.
The LBC report notes:
History teacher Vanessa Brown, 50, spent seven-and-a-half hours in a custody cell on March 26 this year, following a claim she had stolen two iPads which were traced to her mother’s house in Cobham, Surrey.
Yet it transpired that the two devices belonged to her daughters, and Ms Brown had merely confiscated them to encourage them to focus on their schoolwork, a fact Surrey Police has now acknowledged.
“I find it quite traumatic even talking about this now,” Ms Brown recalled.
“At no point did they [the officers] think to themselves, ‘Oh, this is a little bit of an overreaction for a moment, confiscating temporarily her iPads and popping over to her mum’s to have a coffee’. It was just a complete overreaction.
It isn’t made exactly clear who reported the iPads stolen, but it seems to have been the ex-partner of the woman.
Every day we see examples of utterly terrible policing.The ex husband reported the mother of his children for stealing their daughter’s iPads.The first thought of any thinking police officer should be this is not a police matter.That should have been made robustly clear to…
— Howard Jones (@hjoneshojo) April 11, 2025
In any case, why on Earth did police waste their time on this? Isn’t there enough actual crime to deal with?
Surely this is a dystopian novel.
— Danishova (@Danishova) April 11, 2025
The police also prevented the woman from speaking to her own children following the accusation. They also pulled one of the children out of school for questioning.
