A Gaston County man is in jail (where he should be!) after purposely crashing his girlfriend's car while their 7-year-old was in the back seat.

I imagine the conversation between Raymond Morris Patterson, 32, and his unidentified girlfriend wasn't serious enough to put the life of a 7-year-old in danger.

She said they were headed to the gym when Patterson asked her to pick up his gym shoes. When she refused, they argued and Patterson said he was going to wreck her car and total it, according to the newspaper.

Patterson reached across her and snatched the steering wheel. He shoved it to the left, forcing the Cadillac into a 180-degree turn that stopped when the car hit a telephone pole in the dead center of the car’s front bumper.

The officer asked Patterson if the story was true, and he called his decision to wreck the car with his girlfriend and son inside a “stupid mistake," according to police

Stupid mistake? I think not. Signs of a potentially abusive mate sounds more like it.

Patterson is being held in the Catawba County jail under a $1,200 secured bond.