A young psychopath?
“It was great. Cos I wanted to go on an adventure.” – the kid
“He just doesn’t like the word no.” – Mum
Take a look at this story: a 12 year old Australian boy steals his mother’s credit card, cons his grandmother into handing over his passport, then catches a flight from Sydney to Bali, in Indonesia, by himself, lying and charming people all along the way. A psychopath in the making? See what you think:
The clip, uploaded to YouTube by Screen Tower 2, is from an Australian programme called A Current Affair, broadcast on the Nine Network on 23 April 2018.
James, 
Critter, and 
No Psychos, No Druggies, No Stooges 
nowve666 16:00 on April 23, 2018 Permalink |
Spunky kid. He certainly had his charm on too. I had a friend who was hitch-hiking in the South at the age of 14. He was busted for truancy. They put him on a chain gang. The bitch of the thing was that when they let him go after he completed his term, the cops came along and busted him all over again. He said they would just act like they had never seen him before. And there were old men who had fallen for this scam. Chuck cut through the woods to escape.
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James 13:15 on April 24, 2018 Permalink |
Lol, spunk mean semen in the UK. So “spunky kid”, uhhh…
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Critter 16:52 on April 27, 2018 Permalink |
Very good observation. That kid does not have many behavioral brakes, not to mention a fairly practical way to approach to things. He is pretty much cream of the crop, con man material, lol.
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James 21:52 on April 27, 2018 Permalink |
What’s a behavioural brake? The thing that cemented it for me was not the kid himself, but the relatives. Dad didn’t even appear, despite being part of the story. Mum deflects blame to “the system” which let her son do what he wants. And granny, when she says that he’s a good kid, is lying. “Ah no, there’s no problem with him. He’s just…” (eyes go up to the right as speech falters) “…too intelligent for himself at the moment.”
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Critter 21:20 on April 28, 2018 Permalink |
If he’s half as intelligent as they give him credit for then surely, he wont have any problem anticipating his parents reaction if he run off with their credit card and passport. He tested their reaction twice before when they picked him up at the airport before, lol. He knows they will be pretty angry, probably stressed out and generally upset for a good while afterwards. None of that seem to bother him and any potential threat of punishment is not a problem either. Judging from the interview it doesn’t seem like he feel guilty or shameful for what he did. In short, he doesn’t seem have much respect for other people.
He’s good at finding the answers the interviewer will like, even though the guy doesn’t even try to hide his scepticism. The tv host compared him to Frank Abagnale a famous con man, that’s a bit manipulative of him. That’s a bit like suggesting the kid only managed to pull it off because he has the same abilities, not necessearily true, there could be more to that story.
The relatives come off as a bit shallow, hard to disagree on that. Granny is exaggerating the positive stuff, “he’s kind, he’s generous, he’s got a heart of gold and..Eh..Uhm.. Nah, there is no problem with him. He’s just.. He’s just… Too intelligent for his own self at the moment” she is excusing him and it doesn’t even make sense. She avoids saying anything that can be interpreted as negative. She knows he’s a selfish brat alright.
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James 09:56 on May 1, 2018 Permalink |
I agree with all of that, except I think the reporter and host were both taken in by his charm. Sure, they still saw what he had done, but sometimes that doesn’t matter compared to how someone makes you feel. Of course, there’s always more to the story, that we will never know (it would have been easier for me to make a judgment if I had got a look at the boy’s face, but that’s neither here nor there…)
Tell me, what do you think of the boy saying that when he watched his parents walking towards him everything slowed down? That struck me as fake as fuck, taken right from some soppy movie (possibly one of the Home Alones!), but then I don’t know whether ‘slow motion’ is actually a thing people experience.
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Critter 12:31 on May 2, 2018 Permalink |
The reporter does seem pretty captivated, he wasn’t hiding that. His face and voice give me the impression that there is an element of conflict between what the knows and what he wants to believe, lol. He looks like he recognise the behavior.
To me time dilation or slow motion type of experiences is more like something I reccon people would experience in critically dangerous situations (or possibly when certain drugs are involved). For him to experience everything slowing down when his parents show up simply sounds like an incredibly weird reaction. Even wierder when considering all the other stuff he managed to pull off without much restraint. I find that claim difficult to take seriously. It’s like something a drunken sailor would say to flesh out a story, or any teenager to impress his/her friends. He’s mother and granny were exaggerating stuff too, so he probably picked got that habit from home.
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James 14:30 on June 13, 2018 Permalink |
Have you experienced time dilation? I have stepped in front of moving vehicles more times than I should’ve – nothing remotely interesting happened, apart from the people around me getting scared. A couple of times, I said “my life flashed before my eyes”, because I’ve heard others use that one before.
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Critter 10:03 on June 22, 2018 Permalink |
Can’t say I have experienced anything close to “slow motion”, but time definitively feel like it moves slower if fear is involved. Which can be pretty usefull, for slow people like me, lol.
It’s not that I’m the type of person that takes most/everything people say literally, but phrases like “my life flashed before my eyes” kind of sound a bit overly dramatic. Then again some people just have a lot of dramatic stories, which can have entertainment value without having to be 100% believable.
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Critter 11:09 on August 27, 2018 Permalink |
Have you seen this talk by Frank Abagnale?
He did most of his crazy stuff when he was in his late teens to early twenties. That guy has a “grifty” intuition like few others. He talks swiftly and fairly highly articulated, what parts of his story do you find believeable and which parts do you think he added because they make people get a better/useful impression of him?
Just to be clear, I haven’t concluded anything about Frank Abagnales personality.
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James 09:03 on August 28, 2018 Permalink |
Haven’t got time to spend an hour watching that right now, but thanks for sharing. I enjoyed the film adaptation of his life with Leo DiCaprio.
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