Woman Calls Cops On Suburban Texas Mom In Their Neighborhood

Ok, we must discuss this Killeen, Texas. This is too much. Or is it? Let's get into why Karen called the cops on a neighborhood mom, for having her eight-year-old son walk home alone.

Now, I do realize that times are definitely different from when I was coming up, and I’m sure from when you were coming up as well, this one is wild though. Because of this easily avoided encounter, (in my opinion) Ms. Heather Wallace has since lost her house, her job, and some would argue her dignity after all of this.

Here's A Quickie Of What Happened

It's nice day in Waco, Texas, in a suburban neighborhood, (why a suburban neighborhood is used in every description of the neighborhood is beyond me, kids walking in suburban neighborhoods is a thing, right?) Anyways, Wallace was driving her kids home from karate. One of her sons, Aiden, 8 years old, is taunting his brothers. She tells Aiden to get out and walk the rest the way home. He agrees, gets out, and he starts his walk. (Not his first time.)

Who’s Ever Had Kids Go Crazy In The Backseat?

Um, both hands literally in the air over here. Back to the story. So, they are in the neighborhood when he gets out, about a 1/2 mile from their home. He’s familiar with the area, done it plenty of times, there's hardly ever any traffic, and there are sidewalks all the way.

Enter Karen

Now Karen, (because I don’t know her name...and she's a Karen) sees Aiden and asked him if he knew where he going. He tells her he's just walking home, (which is at this point a block away) she doesn't decide to walk with him, or watch him until he's made the block, she calls the cops.

Seriously? Let's Keep Going

She reports Aiden walking home alone, to the cops. They show up, grab Aiden, (literally a block away from his house) and put him in the cruiser. According to Wallace, cops told her that her son couldn’t been kidnapped or sex trafficked. "You don’t see much traffic here where you are, but downtown Waco we do," one of the cops said. He was safe and sound so, are we done here?

Listen To This Though

So, keeping it going, the cops asked her, now that she knows the potential dangers, (that can happen anywhere) would she do it again? Wallace said, "I don’t know." That set it off. The cops arrested her right then, in front of the kids, handcuffs and all and put her in a different cruiser sitting outside.

They called her husband, and Texas Child Protective Services to come out. TCPS interviewed her, get this, in the cop car, and after three hours of shenanigans they take her down to the McLennan County Jail and locked her up. She got booked at 4am, hubby comes and bails her out ($300) and takes her home. Wallace loses her job (1/2 the family's income) and her and her husband couldn’t be alone with their kids. For two weeks both of their mothers had to get involved and help out because of this.

House, Job, Money, Gone

Wallace co-founded a nonprofit called Let's Grow which helped pass a law in 2021 called the Reasonable Childhood Independence law, a welfare reform bill that allows parents to, wait for it...a parent. HB567 unfortunately only relates to family law, this was a criminal case. This is why Wallace still got punished. So, she got a lawyer, plead guilty, to avoid a possible 20 year sentence. Chiiiiild.

The End

She get's 65 hours of community service, had to resign from the pediatric sleep consulting business where she worked and found some work at a cookie store. Money just gone. Child endangerment charges were filed, they had to take a parenting class and several drug tests. All of this after having little Aiden get out and walk half a mile on a warm day in her own "suburban" neighborhood.

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