For about the past year, some of the neighborhood kids have been ringing our doorbell and then running away, sometimes twice a night. It’s always after it gets dark. At first, they would only press the bell once, so it would ring, “Ding-dong.” Now, they press the bell down hard so that it rings, “DI-DI-DI-DINGDINGDONG!!!” The past two times they’ve done it (this past weekend and about 2 weeks ago), my husband has not been home, only me.
I think it is one or two pre-teen or teenaged boys. I say this because once last year I happened to be in the bedroom after dark, near the window (our bedroom is upstairs at the front of the house and faces the parkinglot), and I saw two boys run away from our door into the next yard after the bell was rung. And two weeks ago, I had just come home a little before 9 pm. I went upstairs and opened the bedroom windows. Shortly thereafter, I heard running footsteps and giggling, and then the doorbell went crazy.
Well, at the time I was grumpy because I was feeling tired and nauseous (being pregnant and hormonally challenged probably didn’t help things much either). I ran downstairs and onto my front stopp, and yelled, “Whoever is ringing doorbells needs to stop it and GO HOME!!” There was a little girl on a bike, in the street. She said, “I didn’t do it.” I said, “Well I heard whoever it was come up to my front door, and it needs to stop because it’s not funny anymore!” Then I went back inside.
I was thinking, great, I’m probably going to be branded as a Grumpy Old Lady from now on and they’re going to cause even more mischief. I went upstairs and sat by the open windows for a few minutes to see if I would hear them say anything about my yelling (there were several kids out and about in the area). I heard the little girl call to someone, “David, you been ringin’ doorbells again?”, to which a boy’s voice replid, “Nuh-uh, I didn’t do it!” or something similar. A short time later, I heard the same little girl telling someone, “David’s been ringing doorbells again.”
What I would like to do is, the next time it happens, run out the front door and see if I can catch them, and then march them straight to their home and tell their parents what their child has been doing. My husband thinks this is a bad idea, he wants to be the one doing the confronting; however, the past couple times they’ve done it, he hasn’t been home.
I probably shouldn’t let it bother me, after all, it’s just a couple of stupid kids doing a harmless prank, right? It’s just that it’s annoying, I’ll be sitting quietly reading a book or something, it’s after 9 o’clock PM, and then the doorbell goes crazy. It startles the cats, it startles me, and I think, “Oh goodness what if it’s my husband and he’s injured or something?” Then of course I go to the door and there’s no-one there.
This isn’t the first time we’ve had problems with the neighborhood kids. Some of them were using our front stoop and sidewalk as a skateboard ramp- that stopped when I caught one of them. I opened the door and said, “Please don’t skateboard on my sidewalk anymore.” The kid said okay, and I could tell he was embarassed, and his friend was smirking. Either they have stopped or they have learned to recognise our cars and do it when no-one is home.
Some of the kids also throw trash on our front lawn. And some of them tend to ride their bikes behind the car when you’re trying to pull out of your parking space or will stand in the middle of the road and not move as you are trying to drive by.
Boy, writing all this has made me realize what a bunch of twits there are in this neighborhood! Maybe it is time to move! I have thought about borrowing a friend’s large dog and letting it out into the front yard after the doorbell gets rung. One of my friends suggested setting up a webcam type of deal; then we’d have video evidence to confront them with. I’m stumped as to how to deal with this- anyone have any suggestions?
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