Dad locks up daughter’s closet after ringing up $500 phone bill

WATCH ABOVE: A Hanover County, Virginia dad is teaching his daughter a lesson after she racked up a $500 phone bill. Mike Valerio reports.

A Virginia father is teaching his 13-year-old daughter a lesson after she told him her cell phone bill was $541.36.

“My daughter told me the news about the bill when I was driving,” Jared Cramer told WWBT News.

“She called me and said, ‘you owe 500 and some odd dollars’,” he continued.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "She called me and said, 'you owe 500 and some odd dollars'," he continued.

Instagram was the problem for Cramer’s daughter’s overuse of her available data. So he locked up all her precious belongings, including her phone, designer clothing and jewelry, until she was able to pay back the amount in chores.

“She thought after I got that bill it was going to be a slap on the wrist, don’t let it happen again situation,” Cramer said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "She thought after I got that bill it was going to be a slap on the wrist, don't let it happen again situation," Cramer said.

Cramer took a stack of Post-It notes and placed it on each of her belongings. Each note had a number on it to represent the amount of chores she had to do before he would ‘unlock’ it for her to have.

Cramer said his daughter gets the necessities she needs like a toothbrush and some soap.

“She said, ‘you know what dad, I know you love me, I know I messed up, and I’m gonna work this off’,” said Cramer to WWBT of his daughter.