A man recently took to Reddit to share a story about something he found at his job a few weeks ago. On October 6, the Redditor wrote he discovered a child's handwritten note under his office door at the sports arena where he works.
In the post titled, "Found this under my office door, along with $6,” the user, identified as Mike, said it was a detailed explanation for why the money was attached to the note. Mike shared the details of the note, with the Reddit community, applauding the child's actions.
The child confessed to stealing a snack from a vending machine at the arena.
“Dear [censored] arena, on Tuesday night, I was watching practice. I saw someone stick there hand up the vending machine and steal a pop tart," said the anonymous child who wrote the note. The kid also explained that a group of friends dared them to steal the item for themselves.
“I made a terrible decision. I reached up and grabbed the crackers, and ate them,” the stranger wrote. “I take full responsibility for my dicision. I promise I will never do it again. I will also set a better example."
The child wanted to make things right by including $6 to cover the crackers and the pop tart someone else had taken. "I am very sorry," the child wrote.
The user's post went viral.
Mike initially shared the post in the subreddit category r/MadeMeSmile, where users share positive and uplifting stories. But he had no idea the post would receive 82,000 upvotes, 13,000 comments, and several awards nominated by other Redditors.
“I found the note under my office door when I arrived at work a couple of weeks ago,” Mike told Today Food. He said it would be difficult to track down the person who wrote the note because there are no security cameras in that area.
“This is a new problem we’ve been dealing with,” Mike said, adding that venue serves kids ages 3 to 18, and a few adults. “I suspect one person figured out they could reach the bottom row if your arm is small enough, and the word has spread through the kids.”
Reddit users agreed a child had likely written the note.
While the stranger's identity remains unknown, many Redditors also applauded the child's parents for raising someone who is able to address their wrongdoings in a respectful manner.
“Well someone has been given good parenting,” one Redditor wrote. "Yes they made a mistake, but they also realized their mistake and went to fix it."
"Somebody is raising that kid right," commented another Redditor. "Make mistakes? Sure. Make it right? Absolutely."
"This kid is destined to be a great person," another wrote.
Users also shared similar stories dating back to their own childhoods.
"When I was young, my friend and I stole bowling shoes from a bowling alley," wrote a Redditor. "We thought it would be cool to keep them and have our own bowling shoes. As soon as my parents found out, they drove me all the way back to the alley (which was very far across town) and made me walk in and say I took them and return them."
"When I was not quite ten, I stole a little tiny silk lizard stuffed with sand from a groovy little gift shop in my hometown," another Redditor explained. "My mom found it in my room a couple days later, demanded a confession out of me and drove me to the store where, in floods of tears, I admitted to the old hippy who ran the place that I'd stolen the little lizard and was there to give it back."
Still another Redditor shared a story about her mom stealing an item from a local deli when she was a child: "When she was a kid she was at the local deli and wanted fruit mentos, but her dad said no. However, she stole them and was eating them in the back of a car when her dad was stopped in the post office. My aunt saw her eating mentos, told popop, and he made her go back into the deli and apologize."
These stories are based on posts found on Reddit. Reddit is a user-generated social news aggregation, web content rating, and discussion website where registered members submit content to the site and can up- or down-vote the content. The accuracy and authenticity of each story cannot be confirmed by our staff.
