An unforgiving relative called the police on their nine-year-old nephew after he stole their wallet and refused to hand it over.
And whilst it may seem brutal, they admitted this wasn't the first time they'd had issues with him, so this was the last straw.
Shortly after the boy arrived at their house for a visit they noticed the wallet was missing.
They confronted him on the off-chance he'd seen it, with which he smugly replied: "You can't prove that I stole the wallet!" they told Reddit users.
Despite trying to reason with him he refused to hand it over, so they threatened to call the police.
But didn't take their threats seriously, so they made the call.
Not long after, the police turned up at which point the boy was "sobbing uncontrollably" and handed back the wallet, begging for forgiveness.
When they told the police what had happened, and that his mum was refusing to pick him up, they handcuffed him and put him in the back of the police car.
Their sister arrived 20 minutes later, screaming and crying - so much so the police threatened to arrest her as well.
The unusual but extreme punishment technique has attracted mixed feedback on line, but the majority of people believe they went too far.
One brutal Reddit user said: "You called the police because you wanted them to terrify a f*****g nine year old. That was a cowardly, mean spirited, senseless thing to do."
Another said: "What kind of mean spirited BS is it to want a literal child arrested instead of teaching him how to behave? The criminal justice system doesn't do any good for teaching anybody."
Whereas, someone else said: "I stole gum when I was 7. My uncle cop “arrested” me (I thought it was real). Scared the shit out of me. I haven’t stolen anything since. Sometimes that’s what it takes."
And a fourth commented: "I'm pretty sure the police would rather be stopping by to attempt to scare a 9 year-old straight than to actually arrest him 4 years later for real crimes."
