Whodunnit - kittens vs friend with evil streak

[Incy]

This morning I got summoned to my boys bedroom because the sensor didn't seem to work on his Nintendo Wii.
After some arm waving, I decide to check the obvious and pull the sensor connection to plug it back in. (this works on most electrical items in my experience).
When I pulled it out however I discover that the wire has been severed
My son immediately says ' do you think it's my friend?'
My immediate thoughts were:'kittens!'
The friend in question regularly hides/breaks my sons toys/games/dvd's and admittedly has wii envy, but cutting the cable?
The kittens are very playful and have definitely been in that area. I have never seen them bite a cable but it is a very thin one which looks more like string so they may have thought it was a dangly toy, which they love.

So what do you guys think?
Who's the culprit?

[ckfe]

is it a straight cut or ragged?

[zazen999]

Friend; kids don't come out with stuff like that unless deep down they know......

[ckfe]

Friend; kids don't come out with stuff like that unless deep down they know......

has the kitten suddenly gone black and crispy?

[Incy]

It's a clean cut where it's broken, but the coating rather than the wire was also cut a little further down about 1cm away.

[Incy]

has the kitten suddenly gone black and crispy?

Lol. No but the power was switched off.

[Incy]

Friend; kids don't come out with stuff like that unless deep down they know......

He is certainly capable of it.

[pdblake]

The friend in question regularly hides/breaks my sons toys/games/dvd's ?

And you still let him in the house?

[Incy]

And you still let him in the house?

His Mum is a good friend of ours. So yes. If we didn't have that link then I don't think we would. He can be quite nice at times, but he's very sneaky when he's being evil.

[zazen999]

Is she a good enough friend to pay for the damage?

[di]

Sorry...sounds like the friend to me too!
If I were a brave person,I'd tell the mum my concerns & ask her to have a word with him...I'm not,so I'd probably just make do with having a darned good moan behind their backs!But in future,I'd say they can only play where they can be seen & put away any expensive toys/games.(don't know how old your boy is,I guess it's harder to tell an older child they can only have supervised play than it is a five & seven year old!)

[Incy]

My son will be 12 tomorrow so it would be difficult to enforce that rule.
If it could be proven that he was guilty, yes we would tell his Mum and she would replace it and make him pay for it out of his spends.
As it is impossible to prove either way, I will first try splicing the wire back together ( it appears to be a straightforward copper thread job) and if that doesn't work, I'll replace it.
Generally, I tend to 'play on the pc' if they are in his room as my office is just next door. Last time he was here though the weather was nice for once so I was in the garden....

[allotmentlady]

nah the kitten couldnt do it......have a chat with the mother see what she will do for you !

[SarzWix]

We had a similar thing going on with the daughter of a friend of mine a few years ago Nasty little *** was always trying to get my daughter in trouble too. I made absolutely no bones about it, she (the child) knew that I knew what she was up to, and that I thoroughly disliked it. I never allowed her to go off with my daughter out of my sight - the things they wanted to play with were brought downstairs, and taken back up later, or banned altogether. If the other child complained (which she did, incessantly) I just said "No, I can't afford any more 'mysterious' breakages"...
Kids are bloody 'orrible sometimes...

[Incy]

Yes they can be pretty horrid. I don't think he'll be round for a while anyway as last time he was here there was an issue with him spending my son's pocket money for him and then making off with ALL the bought items. He came back to fetch something he'd forgotten and OH told him in no uncertain terms that this wasn't good enough and made him go home and bring the stuff back. His Mum wasn't impressed as she had his version first and believed him.
So I think we are in the doghouse in that quarter. Suits me though.