Mother shares message after returning money her son stole from Baltimore food truck
By JT Moodee Lockman, Adam Thompson
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BALTIMORE, Maryland (WJZ) — A mother is being praised for returning money that her son took from a Baltimore food truck run by a popular Twitch streamer.
The video, captured from Musa_USA’s stream, has since gone viral on social media.
“When I first saw it, I said, ‘That is not how he was raised, that’s not what we do. You don’t steal from anybody,” the mother, identified as Pastor Tonya Gray, told WJZ exclusively.
In the video, Gray is seen approaching the window of the hot dog truck as Muhsin Sarac, or Musa, was working.
Gray identifies herself as the mother of a man who was seen in a previous stream taking money from Sarac’s tip jar while he was not looking.
In the video, Gray asks Sarac how much money her son took. He eventually tells her it was about $30.
Gray reaches into her purse for the money as she says, “My son wasn’t raised like that. My son drinks, and when he drinks, he does stupid stuff.”
“I want to pay you back because you don’t deserve to be stolen from,” she said as she added the money back to the tip jar.
Gray said Sarac, or anyone working hard for money, doesn’t deserve to be a victim of theft.
“My son had no right to go in and take anything from him,” Gray told WJZ. “He deserved to be made whole. He’s on a corner, he’s doing a service, he’s helping a community. He has the right to what he has worked hard for, to be whole.”
In the video, Gray goes on to say that she put her son into treatment and prays that he gets better.
“But I want you to be OK,” she says to Sarac, who then exits the truck to hug her.
“I always love peace, respect, love,” he says as he thanks Gray.
According to his Twitch account, Sarac is originally from Turkey and was born in 1981. He is known for his daily livestreams featuring his business and his personal life.
“I love Baltimore!” Sarac declared after the interaction.
Sarac told WJZ on Thursday, “She almost made me cry.”
“She’s so lovely,” he added. “I don’t have any kids but if you have kids, you feel more responsible.
“Hold your child accountable”
Gray told WJZ that just because she held her son accountable for stealing doesn’t mean she doesn’t love him.
“We have to care about them enough to check them and say you were wrong, and if you need treatment, let’s find you some treatment, but we will not let you walk around broken,” Gray said. “No matter what he did, at the end of the day, that’s my son.”
Gray offers that advice to other parents, to not give up on their children, but to still hold them accountable for their actions.
“Hold your child accountable, don’t ignore it, don’t look away from it,” Gray said. “Don’t allow the incident or the situation to embarrass you to the point that you are not willing to stand up. Our children are not trash, they are troubled. If they are troubled, we need to address it.”
In addressing the youth, Gray hopes they make better choices.
“You have to be accountable for your actions because every action has a reaction,” Gray said. “If you are going to do something wrong, prepare for the consequences, or better yet, just don’t do it.”
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