Damn Teens in the neighborhood

[Hotsauce]

Ok, so there has been this developing situation in the past couple months. Basically, the guy across the street from me, his wife left him about a year ago. They have a 17 y/o boy, 14 y/o boy, and a 13 y/o girl. The wife got up and left the family. The guy, lets call him Mike does alot of out of town work. So he can be gone for days at a time, leaving these teenagers home alone.

Well as you can imagine, their house has turned into the hang out house for middle and high schoolers. To give you some background info on me, I am upper 20's, married in a house we moved into just a year ago. I am pretty normal guy, enjoy drinking and having fun, etc... So what ends up happening is that after school in the afternoons, around 10+ middle school kids congregate in Mike's front yard. They have fun being kids, playing sports and whatever else kids do (not a problem). But as it gets later, then some older kids who cant drive show up and then there is a pretty decent crowd. They are in and out of the house, but usually sitting in the front yard.

Over the summer, some kids from over there, egged alot of houses on my street, including mine. We know it was them, because I overheard them talking about it one day. I told my neighbors, and we decided to not do anything about it, kids just being kids...whatever.

Well last weekend, I am walking in my back yard and I notice all of these large lava rocks (brick like, used for landscapping) in my yard. Then I saw that my basketball goal backboard was shattered, and the rocks were laying all around it (ok, now I am pissed, that goals was like $350). I grabbed the rocks, and walked around the fence and they came from Mike's yard, he had them as part of his landscapping. I waited for Mike to come home and calmly went to talk to him. I said, "Mike, I found these rocks, they caused damage, I dont know who threw them, but its obvious the rocks came from your yard. Could you help me figure this out". He basically told me that I couldnt prove anything and that his kids are not causing trouble. I never accused his kids, I just wanted to tell him about what was going on.

Well my other neighbor, lets call him Chris, comes out, and he has a handful of the same rocks from his back yard. Chris actually saw the kids throw the rocks and came out of his house to confront them. The kids mouthed-off at Chris, and were very disrespectful to him. Apparently, the kids doing the throwing were not Mike's kids, but they were friends with them.

We left Mike's house and talked in my front yard for a few minutes. We had (1) a witness that saw the throwing and (2) damaged property. We decided that since Mike was being such a douche about it, we were going to call the police. A cop came, we explained the story to him, and told him we didnt want to press charges, that he should just scare the kids, and Mike. Cop talked to Mike and some kids, Mike was an ass to cop, and the cop basically told us that we handled it correctly and to keep a close watch.

Anyway, that is my situation. Nothing has happend since that last weekend. The kids are still hanging out, even last night, they were running around and sitting in my front yard under a dark tree. I thought about turning on the sprinklers (: but decided a light would be better. They left after I turned on the light. I honestly feel like I did the right thing with calling the cops. I realize that calling the police could potentially create more problems with these kids and my house, but it was the right thing to do. These rocks that were thrown, could really have hurt someone if it hit them. And with their history, they started with eggs, which turned into rocks. Damgaged property, which could turn into broken house windows, broken car windows, etc....

Am I that out of touch with kids these days? I am still in my 20's, in most cases I am only 10 years older than these kids. When I was growing up, I got into some trouble, and I get it. I just dont know how to handle this situation going forward...

Thoughts?

[thefuzz]

Not really much that you can do. I would try to talk to the neighbor one more time. If he didn't start to handle the problem, I would probably get social services involved. You would assume that there is probably a law about underage kids home alone for days at a time.

[Goosfraba21]

The kids knowing the cop was out there may be enough to deter them from any more vandalizing. I know when I was a teenager we did a lot of dumb poo that only escalated the more we got away with it.

[Doyle]

Torch his house.

[Davidson Deac II]

Ok, so there has been this developing situation in the past couple months. Basically, the guy across the street from me, his wife left him about a year ago. They have a 17 y/o boy, 14 y/o boy, and a 13 y/o girl. The wife got up and left the family. The guy, lets call him Mike does alot of out of town work. So he can be gone for days at a time, leaving these teenagers home alone.

Well as you can imagine, their house has turned into the hang out house for middle and high schoolers. To give you some background info on me, I am upper 20's, married in a house we moved into just a year ago. I am pretty normal guy, enjoy drinking and having fun, etc... So what ends up happening is that after school in the afternoons, around 10+ middle school kids congregate in Mike's front yard. They have fun being kids, playing sports and whatever else kids do (not a problem). But as it gets later, then some older kids who cant drive show up and then there is a pretty decent crowd. They are in and out of the house, but usually sitting in the front yard.

Over the summer, some kids from over there, egged alot of houses on my street, including mine. We know it was them, because I overheard them talking about it one day. I told my neighbors, and we decided to not do anything about it, kids just being kids...whatever.

Well last weekend, I am walking in my back yard and I notice all of these large lava rocks (brick like, used for landscapping) in my yard. Then I saw that my basketball goal backboard was shattered, and the rocks were laying all around it (ok, now I am pissed, that goals was like $350). I grabbed the rocks, and walked around the fence and they came from Mike's yard, he had them as part of his landscapping. I waited for Mike to come home and calmly went to talk to him. I said, "Mike, I found these rocks, they caused damage, I dont know who threw them, but its obvious the rocks came from your yard. Could you help me figure this out". He basically told me that I couldnt prove anything and that his kids are not causing trouble. I never accused his kids, I just wanted to tell him about what was going on.

Well my other neighbor, lets call him Chris, comes out, and he has a handful of the same rocks from his back yard. Chris actually saw the kids throw the rocks and came out of his house to confront them. The kids mouthed-off at Chris, and were very disrespectful to him. Apparently, the kids doing the throwing were not Mike's kids, but they were friends with them.

We left Mike's house and talked in my front yard for a few minutes. We had (1) a witness that saw the throwing and (2) damaged property. We decided that since Mike was being such a douche about it, we were going to call the police. A cop came, we explained the story to him, and told him we didnt want to press charges, that he should just scare the kids, and Mike. Cop talked to Mike and some kids, Mike was an ass to cop, and the cop basically told us that we handled it correctly and to keep a close watch.

Anyway, that is my situation. Nothing has happend since that last weekend. The kids are still hanging out, even last night, they were running around and sitting in my front yard under a dark tree. I thought about turning on the sprinklers (: but decided a light would be better. They left after I turned on the light. I honestly feel like I did the right thing with calling the cops. I realize that calling the police could potentially create more problems with these kids and my house, but it was the right thing to do. These rocks that were thrown, could really have hurt someone if it hit them. And with their history, they started with eggs, which turned into rocks. Damgaged property, which could turn into broken house windows, broken car windows, etc....

Am I that out of touch with kids these days? I am still in my 20's, in most cases I am only 10 years older than these kids. When I was growing up, I got into some trouble, and I get it. I just dont know how to handle this situation going forward...

Thoughts?

I had a similar situation with kids across the street. They threatened my neighbors kids, tp'd his house, knocked mine and several other neighbors mailboxes down several times. One time, one of them was attacking a Mailbox as a cop drove thru the neighborhood. Cop saw him and arrested him. Didn't stop the attacks on mailboxes though. And other things happened as well. Items were stolen (not mine but my neighbors), rocks were thrown, trees were damaged etc...

Eventually I did two things. Bought a steel mailbox post and cemented it in the ground so that if someone hits it with their car, its going to tear the car up. Then I installed security camera's on the corners of my house. Soon after that, the lead hoodlum got arrested again for selling prescription meds in the local high school, and haven't seen him since. I don't think he is in prison, but I think his parents kicked him out. But once he was gone, the others had no reason to come around, so there hasn't been any problems. I still keep the security camera's up, but don't use them much anymore. Had the problem persisted, I was going to invest in a large dog.

[nunez]

Torch his house.

lol i was gonna say the same

[Ja Rhule]

Install survillance system. You can do it yourself for less than $200

[Doyle]

Install survillance system. You can do it yourself for less than $200

Apparently you didn't read the entire post.

[Darth Biscuit]

Sounds like you handled it very well... probably showed more restraint and patience than I would have...

[Kurb]

Wait till 17yr old is 18

bait him into swinging at you in front of his pals.

beat the poo out of him

Look into his friendds faces and smile

[lymelizzard]

Ok, so there has been this developing situation in the past couple months. Basically, the guy across the street from me, his wife left him about a year ago. They have a 17 y/o boy, 14 y/o boy, and a 13 y/o girl. The wife got up and left the family. The guy, lets call him Mike does alot of out of town work. So he can be gone for days at a time, leaving these teenagers home alone.

Well as you can imagine, their house has turned into the hang out house for middle and high schoolers. To give you some background info on me, I am upper 20's, married in a house we moved into just a year ago. I am pretty normal guy, enjoy drinking and having fun, etc... So what ends up happening is that after school in the afternoons, around 10+ middle school kids congregate in Mike's front yard. They have fun being kids, playing sports and whatever else kids do (not a problem). But as it gets later, then some older kids who cant drive show up and then there is a pretty decent crowd. They are in and out of the house, but usually sitting in the front yard.

Over the summer, some kids from over there, egged alot of houses on my street, including mine. We know it was them, because I overheard them talking about it one day. I told my neighbors, and we decided to not do anything about it, kids just being kids...whatever.

Well last weekend, I am walking in my back yard and I notice all of these large lava rocks (brick like, used for landscapping) in my yard. Then I saw that my basketball goal backboard was shattered, and the rocks were laying all around it (ok, now I am pissed, that goals was like $350). I grabbed the rocks, and walked around the fence and they came from Mike's yard, he had them as part of his landscapping. I waited for Mike to come home and calmly went to talk to him. I said, "Mike, I found these rocks, they caused damage, I dont know who threw them, but its obvious the rocks came from your yard. Could you help me figure this out". He basically told me that I couldnt prove anything and that his kids are not causing trouble. I never accused his kids, I just wanted to tell him about what was going on.

Well my other neighbor, lets call him Chris, comes out, and he has a handful of the same rocks from his back yard. Chris actually saw the kids throw the rocks and came out of his house to confront them. The kids mouthed-off at Chris, and were very disrespectful to him. Apparently, the kids doing the throwing were not Mike's kids, but they were friends with them.

We left Mike's house and talked in my front yard for a few minutes. We had (1) a witness that saw the throwing and (2) damaged property. We decided that since Mike was being such a douche about it, we were going to call the police. A cop came, we explained the story to him, and told him we didnt want to press charges, that he should just scare the kids, and Mike. Cop talked to Mike and some kids, Mike was an ass to cop, and the cop basically told us that we handled it correctly and to keep a close watch.

Anyway, that is my situation. Nothing has happend since that last weekend. The kids are still hanging out, even last night, they were running around and sitting in my front yard under a dark tree. I thought about turning on the sprinklers (: but decided a light would be better. They left after I turned on the light. I honestly feel like I did the right thing with calling the cops. I realize that calling the police could potentially create more problems with these kids and my house, but it was the right thing to do. These rocks that were thrown, could really have hurt someone if it hit them. And with their history, they started with eggs, which turned into rocks. Damgaged property, which could turn into broken house windows, broken car windows, etc....

Am I that out of touch with kids these days? I am still in my 20's, in most cases I am only 10 years older than these kids. When I was growing up, I got into some trouble, and I get it. I just dont know how to handle this situation going forward...

Thoughts?

To really tick them off, Call DSS and tell them these kids are being left alone and unsupervised for days at a time.

[pstall]

You handled this very well IMO. I would try to find a way to bridge the gap between the neighbors and the kids. Have a block party or whatever. Take the sting of the romance out of the teens having all this free time etc.

By showing the hood is willing to have a fun bash with them it may take some walls down even more and since you are the "cool" neighbors they would no longer want to mess with you guys.

The crazy side of me is similar to what kurb said. Plus, I would fight fire with fire knowing me and fireworks, booby traps, getting grades changed, wacked out credits score suddenly show up etc .

Yes, I have that extreme streak in me. A month or two ago I was walking to my car uptown while on the phone with my wife. Some teen and either his older bro or dad rode their bikes right beside me and yelled and scared me since I wasn't expecting that.

I simply looked at both of them, picked up two big rocks and said do it again and I will throw these at you. The kid said yea right. I said I'm waiting. The older dude looked at me and muttered something to the kid and they rode off.

I take no crap from nobody up to a point of course. Be smart but don't esclate.

[Kevin Greene]

Install a loud speaker, pipe Streisand music into your front yard 24/7.

Problem solved.

[Lumps]

fug that call social services and cops and fuging shove the law down their throat. This situation has nothing to do with the kids, as you said they'll be kids. But also as you mentioned once law gets involed (selling prescriptions got arrested never seen again) things will start to change especially for the parents. The parents are your goal here, not the kids. Bad parenting pisses me off more than anything.