Prankster depended on anonymity. Shattered: I traded his name and his address for his peace of mind

The story you are about to read is true. Only the names have been changed to protect the not so innocent.

One night, Minion (my kid) had a friend over. They came to me and looked stressed,

"Mom, someone is texting me crazy stuff and they described where the house is.

""Give me the number."

No one messes with my kid. No one should ever feel unsafe in MY house.

I'm not a coder or a hacker; I can barely run my laptop, but I am good at putting pieces together.

I entered the phone number in a reverse phone number lookup website on my phone, and got the address associated with the number. I checked out the house on street view on Google Maps.

Before I added the number to my contacts, I took a screenshot of all the suggested accounts on Snapchat. I added the number to my contacts and compared.

One name stood out: q\_dawg$&@! <Fake name, please don't harass anyone, ever> I asked the kids,

"Do you know anyone that lives on Smith Rd, <again fake address> with a first initial Q?"

"It might be Quinn." <FAKE NAME>

Awesome. There was a risk that we were wrong, but the chances were, we were right. We live in a small town, with only one high school, it makes sense that it's a teen they know.

I created a burner number on a messaging app, and texted,

"Hey Quinn, if you're going to prank text, do better. I know where you live."

Then I described his house.

“I'm sorry, sir.”

I didn't correct him.

“Don't do that again, to ANYONE.”

I knocked on minion's door, cracked it a little,

"We got him,” and told them what was said, “Let me know if he does it again."

Closed the door.

Through the door, I heard Minion's friend say.

"Your mom is scary."