Sounds like the parents of the rotten kid gave him the $5K to send to the jet ski owner.
Somewhat off topic, but dealing with kids, parents and money...
My son has a friend who he used to work with when he worked at a grocery store (actually 3 friends, two who are brothers). One of these brothers comes from a middle upper class family who apparently has money, because the boy has a very nice sedan that his parents bought for him when he got his license. Apparently this one brother has also gotten into trouble and had at one point stolen his parents credit cards and racked up some big bills (which got him "grounded" for a couple of weeks) and also dabbles in drugs (clean cut looking kid though, doesn't look like probably cause if that makes sense, and nor should that really matter)
Well, apparently this boy had bald tires because his friends (including my boy) were telling him he HAD to get his tires changed because they were going completely bald (apparently one too many burnouts). Kid goes out driving in the rain on night, loses control of his car and hits the guardrail. Turns out they decide to total the car.
Kid has no vehical now (which his parents bought for him to begin with).
Week goes buy, and his mother "gives" him her 2 year old Tahoe as his driving vehicle now.
I'll give my son credit because he has no clue as to the common sense of this boys parents.
Don't get me wrong, I understand there is no perfect way to raise a kid. The honest truth is out of two boys of our own, one is the proverbial prodigal son, but he will never return to us due to drugs, yet we raised both our boys the same way trying to give them a foundation to grow on when they become adults (my son has even commented that he has a good relationship with this other boys brother because they have a lot in common pertaining to their brothers).
When our boys became eligle for driving, we did go out and buy a 2001 Honda accord as a "family car" (at what we thought was a great price for the mileage LOL) that our boys could learn to drive on. We're blessed as a family as my wife and I both work and we could afford it, but I try my best to raise our kids like my parents raised me and my wife like her parents, and that means you get them what they need, not what they always want. One core value is if you want something, you work for it and save. My one boy knew if he wanted a car, he'd have to buy it himself with his own money, and he did just that as he worked and saved for two years and bought his car at age 17.
As mentioned, although there is no perfect way to raise a child, one thing that boggles my wife and my brain is parents who reward their kids with bad behavior.
Needless to say, I could see some parents giving their kids 5k to fix a problem per the post at hand.
Sidenote, no matter how rotten your kids are, you will always love them. The hard part is loving them and being diciplined enough for you to hold them liable for their own actions. That means, sooner or later, you aren't going to bail them out due to some serious dumb actions that lead them to their own predicament.
Honestly, how my parents survived myself as a teen going into my early 20's, I have no clue.
