Kids-Will-Be-Kids, or Malicious Intent?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Hubby and I just bought a new house in the Historic District. It’s a nice neighborhood, but two streets over, it starts getting a little . . . well, iffy.

Since the Fourth of July, we’ve been having sporadic fireworks attacks. They would come up our driveway (between the neighbor’s house and my own-- sort of bold because it’s about ten yards from the street) and set them off in front of our garage.

This morning, I had my cup of tea out on the deck. Only a couple of minutes after I went inside, someone lobbed a firecracker over the privacy fence, where it seems to have exploded on my glass patio table.

By the time I looked out the window, they were long gone. (Our neighbor’s back gate leads out to the alley). My first reaction was to sit out there to wait to see if they’d come back, and say in my best Cool-Adult voice, “Hey, guys, I don’t care if you set them off in the driveway, but please don’t throw them on my deck, okay?”

I thought better of it while I was waiting. If there was any malicious intent, that would only encourage them, possibly leading to escalating problems, like vandalism. I don’t want to seem like a bitch to them, honestly, because I’m a little afraid of them. (I’m unused to children/teens and they intimidate me a bit.)

My main consolation is that they’re bound to run out of them soon. Even as I type this, I can hear the sounds coming from various points in the neighborhood where they’re setting them off here and there.

The problem is that the sound of them makes my dog apeshit with fear.

Should I just let this go, or what??

2

I wouldn’t let it go. What these kids are doing is potentially dangerous and I suspect they know it-hence their quick get away.

Inform the police.

3

Raise the terror alert level in your neighborhood, then invade Oklahoma.

Back to reality - are fireworks illegal in your neighborhood? If so, that’s reason enough to call the police.

4

Whether it’s a situation of kids being kids, or malicious intent, the fact of the matter is that it bothers you and it’s wrong. Either way, the kids need to be sent a message that what they are doing is wrong. I would contact the police and tell them what has been happening.

5

Anecdote: you may enjoy.

The house my wife and I rented in Arizona before we were married had an alley behind it. I’m not a small guy…infact at that time I was really big - muscular - and weighed in around 245 and was 6’ 1" not a small guy…(I’ve since stopped lifting with any regularity and lost a few pounds…it’s been 10 years…) Anyway we had this group of kids who were always walking around the neighborhood causing some sort of mischief. Anything from knocking over trash cans to lighting off firecrackers in dog houses…(firecrackers in AZ is a big no-no)
As of yet, my wife and I had been unharmed by any malcontent - then the kids discovered that we had a hammock between two orange trees in the back…I guess hammock are fun because they decided to jump our fence, and swing around on it at their leisure. So seeing this, and knowing that they had not gone around the front of the house as my car was out front, and they probably wouldn’t be doing this had they thought I was home…but anyway…I decided to give something back to these lovely youths…
So I called my neighbor who had a very large, very loud Rottweiler and we shared a carport around the side of the house. I told him what was up, and what I wanted to do and he laughed and said sure, I’ll wait in the car port with max…
So I went around the house, around the alleyway, to our gate. I could hear them swinging each other and I nonchalantly walked into the back yard…to my surprise one of the youths was untying the hammock to take it, I guess…
I put on my best :mad: face and one of them saw me…the second he did so…he bolted to the only exit in sight…the carport :smiley: the others quickly followed suit.
I was standing in the center of the lawn it happened…
BARK…GROWL…BARK…GROWL…BARK…BARK…BARK :slight_smile:
They came bolting back into the back yard where I was, I simply stood there and watched them scale the fence and take off.
We never heard from them again…but whenever I saw them in the neighborhood I would wave…and actually, one of their father’s was the crew chief for the landscaping crew who did our lawn…and said to me once how I had a nice dog…and that his kid thought it was pretty mean…he smiled and we both had a laugh…I didn’t have to tell him the dog wasn’t even mine :slight_smile:

6

It may very well be illegal to set off fireworks in your city limits (not to mention the tresspassing, vandalism, peace of mind, etc.) I’d call the police, personally, and see what they say about handling it. As far as I’m concerned, it’s not “kids will be kids” once they’re driving up your driveway. “Kids will be kids” is when they ring your doorbell and run away, not when they throw explosives at you. I mean, if they’re throwing it over the fence when nobody’s home, in the summer you could have a fire.

7

Hubby thinks it may be the neighbor’s kids-- something I hadn’t considered. He said when he came home this evening, they gave him very strange grins, which made him suspicious, even though he hadn’t heard about the firecracker-over-the-fence incident yet.

The woman next door is a single mother, and the kids have no supervision during the day. (They’re old enough not to need it, really-- or at least they should be.) Hubby said to go talk to her, saying that “someone” has been throwing firecrackers, and to please keep an eye out for the troublemakers. I don’t know how much that would work, because of the instant not-my-kids dismissal that many parents do.

I don’t know what the police could do. I don’t have any evidence as to who’s doing it, only vague suspicions, and I’m still afraid of retaliation. I don’t want to get into a war with anyone. They have more heavy artilllary than they threw at us: the ones on the porch were Black Cats, but we saw an M-80 wrapper in the driveway.

8

Have you considered getting a surveillance camera? There’s nothing quite like telling the neighborhood kids that you have hard evidence of their wrongdoing, and that you know how to contact the police.

9

I agree with calling the police. They may not be able to do more than just have a cruiser drive down the street a few times during peak mischief hours but that might be enough to deter them.

Several years ago I was driving down a back street in my neighborhood and I saw lots of oranges on the street, this made me suspicious since they were quite far from the tree. Sure enough several kids holding oranges pop up while I am at a stop sign. I stopped and stared at them and shook my head but one little snot lobbed the orange at my car anyway. So I chased them in my van down a back alley. I also made it a point to pick up my cell phone to look like I was calling someone (I wasn’t going to call 911 ofr that but they didn’t need to know it). They looked scared shitless and ended up scattering in all directions. I called the cops when I got to where I was going and they took a report and drove around the area. I’m sure the kids noticed the cops and I never saw those kids doing that again.