A frustrated father thought he was getting even with his ex when he decided to get creative with his final child support payment. Hoping to send a message, he dumped 80,000 pennies on her lawn, but he’d learn the hard way that he had made a big mistake.
Avery Sanford, a Richmond, Virginia teen, hadn’t seen her dad in years when he decided to drop off his final child support payment to her mother. Rather than handing over a check, however, he thought it was a good idea to dump 80,000 pennies in front of the house his ex-wife shared with their daughter. Although he thought he was getting even and sending a message, he’d be the one getting taught a tough lesson.
“I just turned 18,” Avery recalled, describing the day her dad made his shocking delivery. “When I was in the middle of class, my dad came by. He had rented a trailer,” she added. What happened next was captured on surveillance camera video as Avery’s father is seen in the footage pulling away after dumping the payment in front of the house. But, things didn’t end there.
As Avery’s dad “pulled up in front of the house and turned the trailer on so it dumped out all the pennies on the grass,” the teen said her “mom came out and was like, ‘What are you dumping in my yard?'” According to the Deep Run High School senior, her mother didn’t even recognize the man dumping the pennies in front of her home until he shouted, “It’s your final child support payment.”
While many might have let anger take over, the Virginia teen decided to have a much different reaction, showing “her estranged father the meaning of good ‘cents’ and maturity,” the NY Post reported. Rather than getting mad at her penny-hoarding dad, Avery Stanford had a much different reaction. She would respond with kindness, turning a bad situation into a positive one.
Avery Sanford and her mother decided to gather the copper and set it aside for charity, donating the final child support payment from the estranged father to a domestic abuse center, according to News 6 Richmond. After every penny was picked up, the $800 would be donated to Safe Harbor, a domestic abuse center, the mother and daughter decided.
As for the frustrated father, he quickly learned that he had made a big mistake. “It’s not just my mom he’s trying to embarrass, it’s also me and my sister, and it’s upsetting that he didn’t consider that before he did that,” Avery explained. “Turning around and donating that money to moms and children in need, I feel like that really turns this situation into a positive. You can learn from it.”
It seems Avery’s father learned the biggest lesson of all, albeit the hard way. Speaking with News 6, he said he reacted out of 18 years of pent-up frustration and his emotions got the best of him. He added that “the last thing he wanted to do was to put a further wedge between him and his daughter,” but unfortunately for him, that’s exactly what he did. Now, hopefully, others can learn from this too before making the same mistake.
Avery already hadn’t spoken to her father in years, and the incident only proved that she made the right decision to stay clear since she has no interest in having a relationship with anyone who would disrespect her mother. “It’s really hurtful and damaging to your kids when you do things like that,” Avery explained, reminding parents that their actions impact their kids. “It doesn’t matter if they’re young or an adult, the actions of your parents will always have some effect on you.”
