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Neighbor kids are hoodlums (some of them at least)
Reverend_Chaos
Suit Up!Spokane WARegistered User regular
Suit Up!Spokane WARegistered User regular
This is a long drawn out story, so bear with me as I try to sum it up. My neighbor is a single mother with 3 kids, the eldest is 18-19, 15ish, and 6 or so. The Mom had surgery months ago, and ended up in an assisted living facility that she refuses to leave. This leaves the kids at home with some lady that sits in a recliner all day and lets the kids do whatever they want. Their front door is about 15 feet from my back door, and I can hear everything that goes on through my back slider. One of my main problems is the middle child and his friends standing on their steps or in their driveway which is adjacent to my front yard and just cuss up a storm, within earshot of my much younger children. We have asked them repeatedly not to use that language where my kids can hear, but they just keep doing it. The kid's Grandmother stops by several times a day but the kids don't listen to her (the middle child will tell her to F-off to her face among other things) and then do whatever he want anyway. There is a constant stream of kids coming and going at all hours, usually being loud, rude and obnoxious on top of the swearing. They routinely leave trash along our shared fence and in front of my house along the street. My GF caught one of them throwing a pop can into my yard a few weeks ago, and went outside and made the kid come and pick it up. Earlier this year one of the friends was throwing water balloons at our house at the neigbor kid's urging. We can't sit and stare outside all day. Last year right before X-mas, someone slashed my tires on my passenger side. This summer we found a handfull of tacks in our yard only on the side close to the fence we share with this neighbor. Just repeated B.S. that I cannot prove was the neighbor kids, or their friends so the cops won't do anything, but who else could it likely be? (to be fair *some* of this might not be them, but most of it probably is) I still routinely call the police and file complaints so that I have a documented paper trail, and earlier this year they got a ticket from the fire dept. because they were using their BBQ grill as a bonfire and I called the cops about it.The neigbor kid got shot in the foot earlier this year by one of his buddies at a park at the end of my block, and earlier this year I saw one of his buddies sticking a pistol in his waistband as he left their house, and I found out that cops were combing my neighborhood looking for this kid since someone had already called and reported him. Because of the potential danger I would like to do something more pro-active. I would like to set up a camera to record my front yard and my car parked on the street out front, but funds are tight right now. I am welcome to ideas or suggestions that would keep me within the law. I will be getting the landlord's phone number soon, and I think I might start calling him with complaints that would be valid for him to respond to, but my impression of him is that he is a bit of a slum lord, so I am not sure how much good that might do. Any ideas or suggestions?
tl:dr - I hate my neighbor's teenagers and their goosey friends. If my neighbors left I wouldn't have to deal with these silly gooses or their goosey friends.
tl:dr - I hate my neighbor's teenagers and their goosey friends. If my neighbors left I wouldn't have to deal with these silly gooses or their goosey friends.
“Think of me like Yoda, but instead of being little and green I wear suits and I'm awesome. I'm your bro—I'm Broda!”
Reverend_Chaos on
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Past that, just keep calling the police. Hopefully they'll find the 18 year old with an unlicensed firearm and that will take care of the potential argument of a "non adult presence"
Also call the truant officer (no idea how to look that up) to make sure they're going to school. That will help as well.
There's more outlets than just the police, especially when minors are involved.
While I understand your impetus is to cease their behavior - you also need to keep in mind that these are kids abandoned by their parent and caregivers. I would recommend that you contact whateve child protective services agency you have to report the neglect of those under the age of 18. If its as bad as you say it is, then they'll remove the underaged kids.
As for the adult version - eventually he'll run afoul of the law because in a likelyhood he has no respect for himself, let alone the law. Best recommendation for you is to realize that he's still a kid, a kid with hormones, and that one day he won't be as big a shitbag as he is right now. Best you can do for him is leave support information for abandoned teens with either a conversation or a note that says something along the lines of - Help can be had, but no one is gonna give it to you, unless you ask for it.
I'm sorry they're loud and mess up the yard...but please try and see the larger picture and stop the train wreck from getting any worse.
The neigbor across the street was actually coming over for a while and trying to be a male role model for this kid, but the kid was just unreceptive. I do see the larger picture and I am not trying to be vindictive or get revenge for a perceived slight. The only way that I see that can really help them is to show that there are consequences for their actions. I know that this kid has reasons for being the way that he is, and maybe he'll shape up and turn out to be awesome. In the meantime however, I don't want him or one of buddies shooting one of my kids, or throwing more thumb tacks in my yard for my kids to find with their feet. I have talked to them, tried reasoning with them. They just look at me with vacant eyes, and they might shape up for a couple of days at best. This is the 3rd or 4th year of this and I am just not putting up with it anymore. If it was just being loud and messy, I would just deal with it. They crossed the line when they threw tacks in my yard and my 3 yr old stepped on them. That is assault, but I cannot prove who did it. Maybe the neighbor kid, maybe one of his buddies? Either way the root cause is the neighbor kid and the lack of supervision, though to be honest, it wasn't any different when the Mom was home. They just walk all over her. When you tell your 5 year old it's time to come inside and he tells you no and just walks down the street and goes and plays at the park by himself I think you have a problem.
I'll definitely look into child protective services, and I'll try to find out about the truant officer as well.
Also stressing the value of a camera or cameras that provide a clear picture and provide redundancy.
All it's going to take is one pissed off person to grab that gun and shoot at you and your family. I mean they shoot their friend, why would they hesitate to shoot you or your kid? You're right to be suspicious of the car and tack thing.
Get cameras, 2-3 of them. Record, review it daily, call police as needed, press charges.
This.
Every state has different laws regarding surveillance that goes past your yard, and it's not going to look good when you're trying to explain the side effect that is recording a six year old boy across the street with your cameras.
Start with CPS and truant officers and work from there.
Assuming the cameras are centered on his property (say the fence line) and a small bit is catching public domain (sidewalk) enough so you could see people as they walk past it shouldn't be a issue provided the focus plane is on your property. Bottom line when I recommended cameras I meant to discreetly record your property and what occurs when your not around and when you are and just aren't paying attention. I believe as long as the focal point is centered on your property (say the fence) if you get a small bit on top that shows public property (street/sidewalk) it shouldn't be an issue.
That being said, not a lawyer, consult local laws, blah blah blah, use common sense and good judgement.
Also as a friendly reminder, most naughty shit kids do like slashing tyres tends to be at night when its dark so you may want to consider that in your search for a camera system.
I am a little surprised, because if you are in public, you don't have a reasonable expectation of privacy. I don't see how anyone could sue you. On the other hand, if I set up a camera to look through my neighbor's window, or over their back fence or something that would be a violoation of privacy and a huge no-no. I also agree that I would need something that would be able record at night. Someone suggested those motion or infrared security lights, but I think that would just annoy me more than anything else.
I appreciate the advice guys.
Also they do make day\night cameras you know, granted the el-cheapo day/IR cameras don't work amazing at night but you can find a middle of the road model that works excellent either or.
The legality around things like this often becomes a whole different ball game when children are involved. In some cases, completely contradicting what might be common sense.
Just as a fair warning, it is very dangerous to throw around quasi-legal terms like "reasonable expectation of privacy" when you aren't absolutely sure of what the law is.
Before you set up any sort of camera system, consult a lawyer about what you can and can't do and where you can and can't aim the camera.
Given that the entire purpose of setting up this camera is to potentially obtain evidence of criminal activites, it would be prudent to be absolutely sure that you aren't giving the police evidence against yourself at the same time.
however, i don't think it's 'illegal' to have cameras filming your yard in any state. it just may not be admissible in court, and you might get in trouble if you post it on youtube, if you catch somebody doing something. like, if they are in their yard, and chuck a bunch of tacks over the fence, and you catch it on video, that may fall under the "had an expectation of privacy" clause. but your state may not even have that (i don't think MA or IL has it, so basically, you can't videotape shit in those states) and some don't have a consent law at all.
So business as usual in the legal system?
Also, CPS, ASAP.
In case it wasn't clear in my post, at least here in Florida it's perfectly legal to film your own property. The cop just said that since I was filming a tiny bit of the public area, anything that they did on the public area couldn't be used. So if they had a BB gun and punctured my tires, but were standing on public property when they did it then I couldn't use film of them doing it as evidence against them. Once they crossed onto my property it was all very useable and made the whole case super easy.
That sounds a bit out of wack,its public property and a public space so there should be no expectations of privacy. IANAL of course. hmm weird.
One thing you can do is call the local police and tell them you want to set up surveillance because of property damage, and they will probably know what is admissible and what isn't.
And if you haven't, call CPS and tell them things you've seen. Again, there is a small child living in that house.
Cere's keeps mentioning it for a reason. Call CPS - and see if they can at least get the six year old out of that environment. That's a rotten situation for that child. You may not be able to do anything about the older ones, but that young one can be saved some grief. Good luck mate.