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Meet the ‘Meanest Mother in Wyoming’ — Another Example of Good Parenting?

Jan. 10, 2013 10:00pm Mike Opelka

This advertisement in the Northern Wyoming Daily News is burning up the Internet and will probably end up being featured on “The Tonight Show” with Jay Leno.

The Meanest Mother In Wyoming Sells 16 Year Old Sons Ford Truck

Image: Facebook

The six-line ad told a powerful story:

VERY mad mother selling 16 yr. old son’s 1993 Ford Ranger. Drove 3 mos. before son forgot to use his brain and got caught driving drunk. $3500 OBO. Call meanest mother in Wyoming, 307 -2**-****.

We had to know what happened.

At first we thought the ad was too good to be true. After all, it was brought to the web by a Casper, Wyoming radio station. A dozen phone calls to the number in the ad went unanswered and the voice mailbox was full. Text messages were the only way we were able to break through and connect with Angie, the self-proclaimed “meanest mother in Wyoming.” The telephone interview that followed gave us the inside story on a used truck ad that has gone viral.

Angie is a divorced mother of two boys, 19 and 16. The youngest son is the one she said “forgot to use his brain” and ended up getting arrested for driving drunk. When her youngest turned 16, Angie bought her son the 1993 pickup truck featured in the ad. She told TheBlaze that this gift did come with a couple of conditions. He was supposed to:

Keep his grades up
Stay out of trouble (Angie said that her son was basically a good boy. However, he had one friend she feared might lead him astray.)

The young man was holding up his end of the bargain until New Year’s Eve.

That night, Angie was home, waiting up for her son to return from a date. When he missed his curfew (something he rarely did) she became concerned and sent him a text message. The reply she received was not typical. In fact, Angie told us that her son’s text message to her made her worry that he was intoxicated. She asked if he needed a ride home. He said “No, I’ll be home in an hour.”

Ninety minutes later, there was no sign of the boy. Like so many people, Angie’s son was caught up in the night’s revelry and ended up getting arrested for driving under the influence. The Wyoming State Police called the boy’s mother to come and get him and it was on the ride home that she decided to sell the truck to teach her son a lesson. Her ex-husband did not want her to sell the truck. She offered to let him buy it. He refused.

The next few days brought impassioned pleas from both her son and her ex-husband. Angie said that she held firm and placed the ad that ran on Wednesday in the local paper. A day later, the story hit the internet and Angie’s phone hasn’t stopped ringing.

Before the ad caught fire on the web, Angie did get a several calls from serious potential buyers, but as of Thursday night, she was still looking for a buyer.

Do you think Angie’s “tough love” parenting is appropriate or would you have given her son a second chance? Weigh-in below in the comments section and take our Blaze Poll.

TheBlaze removed the phone number from the ad.

(H/T – FM 107.9 The River)

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Comments (187)

tljjjjcline
Posted on January 13, 2013 at 9:33am
13A is probably not a mom but a 13 year old kid. Were not talking about a speeding ticket or minor accident or breaking a curfew. This kid was intoxicated behind a wheel,He could have killed himself or someone else. You did the right thing Mom and the polls are with you. It’s a shame some people don’t understand consequences! If it were me he wouldn’t have a car again until he was an adult.

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Bikkiboo
Posted on January 12, 2013 at 6:58pm
The boy IS having his second chance right now. He’s learned that driving drunk means not driving at all. He has just received his “vaccination” against drunk driving. Do you think he’ll ever do it again? I doubt it. This mom has probably saved her son’s life as well as some other peoples’ lives. I’m surprised he even had a car at age 16. Quick consequences work. Giving easy second chances encourages breaking the rules because nothing bad happens. I encouraged an 8th grader once to work hard so he wouldn’t get an F. He replied, “I don’t care if I get an F. Nothing bad happens if I get an F.” Kids can’t see the future like adults can. My student had already been in boy’s school. If he’d had consequences when he was 4 or 5, he might have understood that bad things DO happen when you break the rules. At age 14, he STILL didn’t get it because he’d always been “given a second chance.”

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cloverberry
Posted on January 12, 2013 at 3:00pm
I know what he did was stupid but one more chance. Teach him some compasion. Didn’t you ever do something stupid and were given 1 more chance? I know I did. Where would you be without that second chance.

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suz
Posted on January 12, 2013 at 3:14am
i have no problem w/that ad.

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pioneer76
Posted on January 11, 2013 at 11:13pm
The boy had a second chance. He is still parking his feet under her kitchen table.

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NinaKronk
Posted on January 11, 2013 at 7:36pm
Let me ask my son if this kid deserves a second chance….Oh wait I can’t. He didn’t get a second chance when he was hit and killed by a drunk driver 3 years ago. The guy had a previous DUI. What if that was his second chance?? Sorry I believe this mother was ABSOLUTELY right!!

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13a
Posted on January 11, 2013 at 6:59pm
Hard to defend anything when my posts are deleted. 30 minutes gone.

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- 912network
  Posted on January 12, 2013 at 4:08am
  You are the biggest whiner who has commented on this story. Grow up and wise up.
  
  Report this comment
8mileshigh
Posted on January 11, 2013 at 6:17pm
I have been trying to comment on this site for years. I am not very technologically informed but it’s not very user-friendly compared to other sites where I’ve commented.
I am just glad this 16-year-old is still alive. And of course that he didn’t cause harm to anyone else. I personally don’t think 16-year-olds should be able to have a license. In the time and place where I grew up you had to be 17 to have a license. That was fine with me. Heck if I had my druthers you’d have to be even older!
I admire Jay the army guy for his standards for himself re drinking and driving. The truth is it often takes us years to smarten up about things like this. I very rarely drink even one glass of wine now but I’m sure I wasn’t so careful when I was younger.
I do hope the way this mother made this public won’t cause issues between her and her son.
I have noticed that sometimes the comments on this site quickly veer away from the topic in the article and towards nasty comments about the other commenters. This makes me sad especially since presumably most frequenters of the site are probably Glenn Beck fans and hopefully share some of his values such as patriotism, helping others, etc.
BTW I used to watch his Fox show but haven’t followed him as much since.

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Deejoy
Posted on January 11, 2013 at 5:44pm
Way to go, Mom! He should have to have a job and repay all of his legal expenses(and there are a lot for a teenager’s parents). Then he should work and save his money to pay cash for his next truck and all of the insurance(now more expensive). He would be lucky to got to drive by the time he was 18( and responsible for himself as an adult). This would be his second chance in my book – sounds tough? Been there! The outcome of drunk driving could have been so much worse!

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rootytoottootin
Posted on January 11, 2013 at 4:32pm
She did the right thing, GREAT PARENTING!!!!!!!!!!

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rootytoottootin
Posted on January 11, 2013 at 4:30pm
Her’s was the right decision, great parenting Mon!!!!!!!!

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RD2
Posted on January 11, 2013 at 4:15pm
Most places have a 0 strikes drunk driving law: you get caught, you lose your licence. In Ontario your licence is suspended immediately for at least a week, sometimes longer. If you’re convicted, it’s gone for a year. Doesn’t matter whether its your first conviction or not. Since the kid will probably lose his license, he doesn’t need the truck. Selling it was not extreme. Why pay insurance on something you can’t drive? If he doesn’t lose his licence, there is something wrong with the laws in Wyoming.

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Larry E
Posted on January 11, 2013 at 3:54pm
Good on ‘er! If I’d been arrested for drunk driving at the ripe old age of 16 I’m not sure I’d still be here, and my dear old dad would have pled justifiable homicide too. He might even have gotten off in 1957 Montana too.

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kristieswisher
Posted on January 11, 2013 at 3:48pm
Good parenting job, Angie! I hope your son learns his lesson and goes on to mature into a fine MAN. We have enough immature boys filling our jails and prisons. If more parents were involved and did take a tough approach to discipline and actually taught that there are consequences to our actions, I don’t believe that would be the case.

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AllAmericanGirl22
Posted on January 11, 2013 at 3:47pm
She paid for it, the ex husband needs to mind his own. She should sell it, he could have been killed or killed someone else. Good job Angie!

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kristieswisher
Posted on January 11, 2013 at 3:38pm
Good parenting job, Angie! You are wise to do what you did. We all deserve second chances in life, but we don’t get to take chances with other people’s lives. You gave your son a second chance to live a mature, responsible life when you took the truck and forced him to think, take a look at his illegal, and stupid behavior, and consider the very real consequences. I hope he matures into a fine young MAN…and does not continue to be the immature boy he is now. God knows our jails and prisons are full of fools like that–I bet alot of them wish they either had had parents like you…or had listened and heeded the advice they were given. I don’t imagine a second chance at life in prison is much of a life at all…

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Chaly
Posted on January 11, 2013 at 2:42pm
I do think this action deserves a second chance. Of course, that would be without a truck. Next time he want’s something he pay’s for it. That is a serious problem with today’s younger generation’s, cell phones, computers, ipad’s, ipod’s etc. are all provided. My dad’s advice was simple “you want it you pay for it”. Today we are breeding an ‘entitlement generation’ like no other and they will not want to pay for it.

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Mariposa69
Posted on January 11, 2013 at 2:24pm
I want to encourage this lady to follow through with her discipline which is an outstanding way for the boy to become a responsible man which is only two years away. Yes, he was blessed that his recklessnesses did not kill or anyone else–that is a second chance. He was given a car instead of working for it. In the early 60´s when I was young–only the very wealthy were given cars in the USA. We all had to work for our vehicles and I believe it made us more responsible.

His behavior manifests an adolescent who is completely unaware of his mother´s sacrifices and lacks understanding of the potential dangers of driving a car under the influence of alcohol. He is too immature to be given this privilege.

Young people in most countries throughout the world don´t usually get a car when they are 16 years old. Teens in the US are very spoiled. I have relatives in two other nations and believe me the teens have no trouble getting around in public transportation or walking long distances. Most of the upper classes in other nations are the only ones who are given cars at such a young age.

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LadyChief
Posted on January 11, 2013 at 2:20pm
Way to go Mom!!!! We did the same thing to our son (for a different offense) and he had to buy the next vehicle himself and is still on strict-parental-probation. ANY incident and this vehicle too will be gone!! Driving is a privilege, not a right! If a teen cannot handle it, get them off the road. Too many other people could be harmed.

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killermike2178
Posted on January 11, 2013 at 2:07pm
Hell, yes, she made the right call! They had an agreement: She buys him the truck, and he maintains good grades and stays out of trouble. Agreements like this usually work like contracts: If one party breaches the contract on their end, the other party is well within their right to pull out of it altogether. He breached the clause of “staying out of trouble”, so she was right to take it away from him.

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Cheeseyfactor29
Posted on January 11, 2013 at 2:05pm
He doesn’t deserve a second chance. They had some rules to follow, and he consciously broke them, and more than that, it wasn’t just “staying late after curfew” sure, after curfew he should have been given a second chance… but it was drunk, after curfew… and driving, not only that… he’s 16… not 21, but 16. She paid for the car, and he broke sooo many rules…. No second chance.

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Alborn49
Posted on January 11, 2013 at 2:04pm
There is no question this mother is doing the right thing. Guess who is responsible for any damage or pain or suffering caused to another human or property if the boy has a wreck while DUI. The mother and Dad. I raised two sons myself and they were told the day that they were given keys to their cars that if they ever got behind the wheel after drinking they would not have another car while they were minors. That punishment would have been harder on me than them. They both had very hectic schedules of places to be. They were also not allowed to drive on the Interstate Hwys in our town for 6 months. There was no question that I would follow through with these conditions on driving. One lost his driving privileges for a month and had to ride with his brother when I learned that he had had a drink at a friends house while spending the night. I am one mother that accepts my role to help make all people as safe as possible while on the highways. My children as well as others. This Mom is definitely right on this one. They may no longer be able to afford the insurance after a 16 year old gets a DUI. I know I would not.

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dianne37334
Posted on January 11, 2013 at 1:53pm
Yes! I applaud this mom.. For those that think he needs a second chance I agree.. there is time for that he is young.. Maybe mom will consider it when he is 18…That will give him plenty of time to think about it and mature…Keeping him and others safe. To bad the dad is not on board…

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manychildren
Posted on January 11, 2013 at 1:39pm
No second chance – - but this should be a moot point. He should have his license suspended for a year for that infraction – or is WY law a bit more lenient? And, who is going to pay the substantial fine for the ticket? Perhaps mom is selling the truck to pay the fine, court costs, and increased insurance premiums. We try to instill ‘decisions have consequences’ mentality in our children. WY Mean Mom is doing the right thing. Were it me, if the law didn’t suspend his license, I would require the child to surrender his license to me – - probably until he turned 18.

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