Have you ever caught 'em

wcc · 05-09-2009, 04:10 PM

I've caught kids toilet papering my trees (last winter) and I've caught (last night) 'ding dong ditch' kids around 2am. Honestly, I've been VERY disappointed in the parents and the way they deal with it. Both the parents apologize but they don't make the kids say sorry or even clean up the mess. Heck they made excuses for them. Maybe I'm a hard azz on my kids but they need to learn right from wrong, respect, being polite, and to be responsible, along with learning to work hard for what they have. Unfortunatly, my kids will probably be walked on because of it. Maybe I should teach them nice people finish last. I know if they are ever walked home from someone for doing such things you can bet they'd be cleaning it up and I'd walk them around apologizing for what they did.

Embraer · Embraer's Garage

When I was in high school, I bought a set of night vision goggles for the sole-purpose of TP'ing people. Yes, I considered myself to be a pro-at it...but I was also always the first person to go back afterwards and help clean up. It allowed me to appreciate my handy-work even more....kind of like the crooks who hang around afterwards to see the aftermath.

sammyg2 · 05-09-2009, 04:34 PM

My truck has been egged twice and the house TP'd three times in the past three months. If I caught them I'd be in more trouble then them. GET OFF MY LAWN kind of trouble.

guess that's the price of having a 15 year old daughter who goes through boyfriends way too fast. I've talked to her about that but she's female so she doesn't listen.

Yes, the shot gun in cleaned and prepped

m21sniper · 05-09-2009, 04:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sammyg2

My truck has been egged twice and the house TP'd three times in the past three months

Hardly surprising.

FastCarFan · FastCarFan's Garage

Someone my wife works with had their house TP'd recently & somehow they figured out who did it (not sure if they caught them or what). Anyway, they called the kids' parents & said it took them 10 hours to clean up the mess. They said they would go to the police unless the kids agreed to do 10 hours of labor for them. For example, they said they would soon have mulch delivered to their house that will need to be spread.

Not sure how it turned out, but I like their thinking!

Gogar · 05-09-2009, 06:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sammyg2

guess that's the price of having a 15 year old daughter who goes through boyfriends way too fast. I've talked to her about that but she's female so she doesn't listen.

Yeah, It's her.

911Rob · 911Rob's Garage

If Karma is true then I'm surprised this hasn't happened to me yet?

Cops brought home one of my kids once; egged a house and got caught. Neighbor took down their license plate. I made the kids go and clean the house and apologize. It was some kid that lived there that they didn't like, but the parents were very surprised to see the bandits show up.

cop was really cool about the whole thing.

Schumi · 05-10-2009, 12:59 AM

Man.. when I was in high school, I had a friend who's father owned a janitorial supply warehouse. Convenient, huh? We went and got a bunch of giant rolls of TP.. 2 foot diameter things meant for public restrooms.. and loaded up the back of his P.O.S. isuzu..

Those industrial TP rolls were difficult to throw, and when they hit the ground they made a loud thump. We wrapped a few houses all the way around with a few rolls... easy to clean up and really awesome looking.

We targeted some friends and a few kids that were d-bags... we went back and helped the friends clean up the next day. The d-bag kids.. not so much.

So the lesson is- don't have kids who are d-bags. And if you are getting TP'd and you don't have kids in middle to high-school... then you have a right to be pissed I guess.. :-)

wcc · 05-10-2009, 04:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Schumi

clipped...
So the lesson is- don't have kids who are d-bags. And if you are getting TP'd and you don't have kids in middle to high-school... then you have a right to be pissed I guess.. :-)

I have one in preschool and one in kindergarten. But all these kids go to the same school and you'd think they'd learn that they won't get away with it. Especially since I've caught every attempt so far.

The really disappointing thing about it is I've been nice to these kids. The toilet paper kids I caught one of them I would always fix his and his brothers bicycle. Also, the one of the kids asked for work so I gave him odd jobs because he was saving for stuff. I paid him pretty good for what he had to do.

The ding dong ditch kid I've spent lots of time with as well. There were a lot of days when he's home alone and I'd be working on the car and he'd come over and just hang out, hand me tools, play b-ball in the driveway, play in the back yard swing set, heck I even built him a ramp for his bike. My kids use it too but they aren't old enough to really get it yet, so it was more for him.

Rick V · 05-10-2009, 05:08 AM

Having wrapped a few houses in TP in my younger days I became very good at cleaning the mess up. I was the type to hit the houses I knew so that I wouldn't get in trouble and I knew the owners would get a kick out of it. I found trees look the best TP'd.
Never did the egg thing, I grew up dirt poor and I couldn't force myself to throw food. TP was easily had from the local gas station.
My favorite was to move For Sale signs from one house to another.

widgeon13 · 05-10-2009, 05:59 AM

Senior prank! Bunch of buddies TP'd the courtyard at our HS and slept there as well, actually got caught and principal wouldn't let us attend our senior banquet and prom, also had to do five days of work in the school before we got our diplomas, what an idiot. We didn't break anything or hurt anyone, been dodging the law ever since.

He actually wanted to send letters to our colleges but the parents discouraged that. Of course this was after we did the flaming bag of ---- on his doorstep, ring the door bell and run routine. Guy just couldn't take a joke. God, HS was fun!!

wreckersteve · 05-10-2009, 07:12 AM

TP'ing I would want the kids to clean up and would not make a big deal out of. The eggs would piss me off. I remember kids throwing eggs and stuff when i was younger. Man I ran a few down. Funny when the cops got there.

LeeH · 05-10-2009, 07:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wreckersteve

TP'ing I would want the kids to clean up and would not make a big deal out of. The eggs would piss me off.

+1 I remember when our house got TP'd when I was in high school. My dad saw it as a positive sign for me socially (?). He laughed about it, took pictures and wouldn't even let me clean it up for a couple of days.

ljowdy · 08:00 AM

Although I went to high school in the 60's (free love, free drugs, hippies, etc etc) (1962-1965) I quickly learned that I didn't want my stuff vandalized and therefore I wouldn't vandalize the property of another. When I joined the military in 1966, it wasn't difficult to see who was brought up right and who was brought up wrong.

You can call it a prank but in my opinion, it's a product of poor up bringing which translates into piss poor parental supervision.

TerryH · TerryH's Garage

TP'ing is pretty innocent ritual of childhood. The few I involved in, was usually in retaliation for mine or friends house getting the treatment. If it was the worst crime my child committed, I would consider myself very blessed.

Laneco · 05-10-2009, 08:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TerryH

TP'ing is pretty innocent ritual of childhood. The few I involved in, was usually in retaliation for mine or friends house getting the treatment. If it was the worst crime my child committed, I would consider myself very blessed.

Right on! Egging isn't cool as you can actually damage paint, etc. with it. TP'ing is pretty harmless. Indeed a ritual of childhood. I last tp'd a car about 3 years ago at the overgrown child age of 43. It was my brother in law's car.

The funnest part? Running like hell away from the scene while laughing!

I may grow old, but I refuse to grow up!

angela

svandamme · svandamme's Garage

we had another prank...
grab a fresh dog turd, wrap it in a ball of newspaper...

drop at front door of victim... light it and ring the door bell...

usually reserved for those who deserve it

ljowdy · 05-10-2009, 10:13 AM

I guess those of you that feel it's harmless have absolutely no respect for the property of others...
It's a shame you think that way as you've rationalized away the fact that you're hurting someone else, possibly breaking the law depending on your local laws, possibly costing someone else time and money all by saying it's harmless.

I'd suggest you grow up and not pass this trait along to your children.

widgeon13 · 05-10-2009, 11:50 AM

I agree it's not very mature behavior and yes it will cost someone some time to clean it up but come on, there are much worse things kids are doing today than TPing a house or yard.

When I was in HS most of the kids I hung with were in advanced college classes, all got in to good schools and grew up to be very outstanding individuals in my opinion. They were not goody goody's. We drank, partied and had a good time but no one got hurt by my standards, no drugs and we looked out for each other.

When my son was in HS, I think the house might have gotten decorated on one occasion. I cleaned it up and never asked a question. All I said was "hope that doesn't happen again", never did.

Breaking the law, what law?? It's paper!

Loosen up! If you didn't get in some trouble when you were in HS it must have been a very dull four years.

ljowdy · 12:07 PM

First of all, when I went to high school, it was only 10, 11th and 12th grade.... I'll help with the math, it was 3 years. To answer your question, no, it wasn't boring as I found a bunch of other things to do and had a great deal of fun... Toilet papering a home or putting dog poop in a burning bag wasn't my idea of fun.

You stated that there are much worse things kids are doing today so, does that make it OK to vandalise or trash someone's property? I think not. If kids were brought up with values then they wouldn't stoop to such idiotic and moronic ventures.

Check your state penal codes on littering... You'll see that it's against the law to leave litter on public or private property. It's a misdemeanor in most states. In California, it's Penal code section 374.4

The idea I had whe I was in High School was to NOT get in trouble.

In my opinion, your line of reasoning is just as above, you're rationalizing why it's OK to deface, damage or litter.

In closing, I'll take the advice that you have in your signature block and not argue with you, I don't want to get dragged down.