I got home from work yesterday to find ElzaHub standing in the kitchen, completely ticked off. Turns out he had gone out to run some errands during the day yesterday, and when he got home, he noticed that there was water running into our basement. We have a partially-finished basement with an alcove that’s carpeted. The carpeted alcove was soaked, and there was water all over the floor in the unfinished part of the basement. We hadn’t had any storms yesterday, and he couldn’t figure out where the water was coming from. Finally, he went outside to see if he could locate it.
Some little shit had turned our hose on full-blast. Which is right above our basement. Which is where the water was coming from. It was in such a concentrated spot that it just soaked into the basement.
We have no idea how long it was running - he’s thinking about 4-5 hours. So now we have a very wet basement. He’s going to do what he can with the wet-dry Shop Vac today, but we’re thinking we may have to replace that carpet in the alcove.
Our water bill is going to be outrageous. Not what we need right now.
Apparently, our driveway is serving as a cut-through for neighborhood kids. I suspect I saw one of the culprits last night when she went through the driveway on her bike, stopped briefly, and looked right at the spot where our hose is (long after we’d turned it off). ElzaHub’s going to leave the blinds open all day today to see if it happens again (we’ve been keeping the blinds shut so we can keep our a/c bill down) since he’ll be home job-hunting all day anyway. Little shits.
I committed acts of vandalism as a young teen. It was over 50 years ago, but I still regret it. It’s happened to me a few times, I just sigh and accept it as pay back.
You can replace your hose bibbs w/ keyed ones, like on commercial buildings. Probably worth considering.
We have a fence around our backyard. They’re cutting through our driveway, around our fence, and through our neighbor’s backyard (who no longer lives there, as the house is up for sale). So unless we fence out the side of our driveway, we can’t really do anything with it.
He said the Shop Vac got up most of the water in the basement, which is good - and got up part of the water from the carpet, but it’s still pretty wet. I suggested he call my dad to see what else is there.
It also soaked a couple of boxes we had, but luckily, it only ruined two videos (sadly, one was my favorite Meet Me In St. Louis video:( ), but for the most part, even my boxes of books were safe.
It just pisses me off. With everything else going on right now, this is just about the last thing we need. We can’t afford to replace that carpet at the moment, so it’s going to have to stay until we can.
Call up the cops and let them know what’s happening. It did include vandalism this time, and they should respond to the tresspassing also. Put up a video camera and film the kids that are using your yard as a short cut. Use the tape to get the specific kids to stay out of your yard. They can’t ignore tapes of the culperts. The water sould step up the priority for the police, and you may have to make out a report.
We discussed calling the police last night, but honestly, we don’t have access to a video camera, and there’s really no way to catch these kids other than running out there and physically holding them until the police arrive. They’ve never done anything like this before, so we suspect it was a ‘school’s still out’ prank. Still, we will probably call the one officer we know (it’s a small town) and see what he says about it - if we need to file a report or not.
I don’t want to turn into crazy “Get out of my yard!” lady, but when they’re screwing with our property, I get a little pissed off. I also don’t want to make ourselves bigger targets, you know?
Does your homeowner’s insurance cover acts of vandalism? Or is your deductable too high to make it worth reporting?
Our basement carpet has gotten pretty wet before, and we dried it out with a shop vac, fans and ran a dehumidifier down there for a few days, and it dried out fine. It’s not top quality carpet or anything but there was no lasting mold or damage done, so you might be fine.
My husband is out job hunting today too. I was just thinking today about how everything seems to happen at once. We seem to be having the same luck, so I can sympathize.
We’re hoping the carpet just dries out - we wanted to replace it anyway, and it’s on our list of home improvements (in fact, pretty much replacing almost every room of carpet is on our list), but with ElzaHub out of work, it’s low on the priority list.
Yeah, he’s been out of work about 7 months now…:(. It’s been tough, so I know how you feel.
I don’t think we can really report it - we called my dad to see what he thought, and he didn’t mention making a claim (he’s also an insurance agent, not ours, but we typically listen to him if he tells us to do something), so it’s probably not worth it. We’ll wait until the carpet dries and see what happens.
Hey, ouryL, bite me . The basement tends to get a little damp every once in awhile, but nothing like this. Of course, when you have five hours of water concentrated at one particular spot, it’s going to get even worse.
You don’t need to be the crasy lady for the block. You don’t need to yell at every kid that steps on the lawn. I would want the police to ask around the neighborhood and let parents know that the vandalism occured. I’m sure the kids don’t even realise the results of turning on the tap. You may be able to borrow a camera from somebody. There’s nothing beter for parents that refuse to believe their child did something. I can remember the day 22 shells started hitting the house. The sherrif wanted to know if it was still happening, and a shell whized by. he got the kids imediately, who were hunting on public land. They didn’t know a bullet went that far. They were all appologetic for the hole in the siding, and willing to pay. I made it clear what the problem was, and it wasn’t the hole like they thought. I let them know that they were here to stop them from shooting a a person dead. I made sure they realised that one foot over was the window glass with people behind it. People don’t stop doing something until their made to realise all the consquences they didn’t percieve.
Discord has a point: you could be setting yourself up for some nasty retribution if you involve the law. I would just lock up the faucet and remove any temptations from the area and leave it at that.
I have the exact same issue with my driveway being used as a cut-through by the neighborhood-- not just kids, mind you, but *adults *too. The driveway is all that seperates my house and the neighbor’s, so I’ll occasionally be in the kitchen and be startled by the sight of someone walking toward my garage. They weave between my cars to go through the neighbor’s yard to a back gate that she leaves ajar. The grass has been worn away into a path between my driveway and her gate.
I don’t like it because it feels like they’re trespassing but the Neighbor Lady and I have agreed that it’d probably cause a little trouble if she was to lock the gate.
How old are these kids - 2?
Are they mentally deficient?
What results don’t they understand, that water is wet?
For crying out loud. Even if the little shits didn’t comprehend the extent and expense of damage they would cause, give the little beasties credit for knowing damn well that leaving someone’s tap on unattended was “a bad thing to do.”
Discord’s the one wanting me to involve the police. I’m the one who doesn’t really want to do so.
I don’t actually mind the kids cutting through - all they’re doing is walking up our driveway into the neighbor’s yard. But if they want to pull this shit, they’re going to make sure that none of them are allowed to cut through. IOW, one of them is going to ruin it for the rest of them, and they can go up to the cross streets.
Dinsdale, they’re at least 13-14. They know they could be causing damage.
ElzaHub’s headed up to get the lock for the faucet today, so hopefully, this is the end of it. The carpet’s starting to dry out and the basement floor seems to be completely dried out at this point, so with luck, the carpet won’t be too bad.
Mr. Dinsdale I am pointing out that people, in particular childern don’t forsee the real consquences of their pranking. I would be furious that they turned on the water and flooded my basement. I would pursue this. I would however not start calling the cops every time a kid stepped onto the property. I would note who they were and watch for the home of these childern, and tell their parents that I don’t want their childern crossing my yard as a shortcut.
At the very least, they must understand that they are causing someone inconvenience.
Why is it that so many kids today seem not to have learned one of the primary rules of my childhood - thou shalt not fuck with other people’s stuff!
