Father of 2 kids arrested for stealing guns at ‘wit’s end,’ wants help

The father of two children accused of stealing 22 guns from a Cape Coral gun shop said he is at his wit’s end.

WINK News is not naming the father to protect the identity of his sons, who are 11 and 14, who were arrested on Wednesday by Cape Coral police.

The father of the boys said his older son keeps getting in trouble and he needs help keeping them under control.

The two boys are being held in juvenile detention for 21 days but their father wants them to be more severely punished.

He would almost rather the state take them off his hands.

The 14-year-old has made headlines in the past year for trying to break into a pawn shop.

The children’s father said he has had to call the police on his own children in the past.

“Cops have been here multiple times,” he said. “Maybe four days prior to this and I called the cops to ask them for help, hey what can we do nothing. I tried texting (child’s name) probation officer saying hey I need help; he’s uncontrollable.  Nothing, I got nothing.”

While the children’s dad is ready to give up, parents can’t just do that.

“I mean, you could try to make the kids a ward of the state,” said FGCU Professor David Thomas, who is a former police officer.

“I think the options are, maybe, dad needs to learn how to be a better parent. So the state maybe can step in and say, OK, we’re going to do parenting classes. Now, we’re going to give you all the services that your family needs, I think in order to kind of prevent this from going any further.”

The older boy has been in the system before and he’s back in the system now.

Thomas said, even at 14, his behavior may be hard to correct and state resources are limited.

Probation officers are overwhelmed and the Department of Children and Families officers are overworked.