Yesterday, at about 3:30 in the afternoon, Eleya started hearing little pinging impact noises from the front of the house. When she opened up the curtains to see what was going on, she found that our neighbors’ teenage son and an assortment of his acquaintances were shooting a BB gun. AT OUR HOUSE. Obviously she was not pleased and immediately called the county sheriff’s office, who sent not one but two cars to investigate. They rounded up all the involved kids and took down names, addresses, etc. Apparently (we found out later) the kids claimed they were shooting at a trash can.
She called me that evening while I was still at work to tell me about the goings-on, and needless to say, I was not pleased either. Unfortunately I got home very late from an office after-hours function, too late to comfortably contact the neighbors. (Plus I had a beer or two at the function — responsibly of course! — and felt that was not the proper state in which to deal with the afternoon’s events.)
This morning we discovered that at least four separate shots had hit and damaged three different windows on the house — rather more than expected for shooting at something else entirely — including one in the living room. It should be noted that while the living room window lies quite a bit “uphill” from the road due to the way our lot slopes, it’s possible that window’s damage was the result of a ricochet. But the garage windows that were also damaged are on the complete opposite side of the house, and the porch lies somewhat in the way, making the damage there less likely to have resulted from bad aim or bad luck.
Tonight I will be calling the parents and alerting them to what happened, since I have two suspicions — one, given that we have not heard from them, is that their son has not told them of the deputies’ visit. The second is that they also will be less than pleased and will take the appropriate parental action. I’m not sure what the outcome is going to be viz. the sheriff’s office, since firing a projectile weapon at an occupied dwelling is a felony offense. Seeing as how my family was in said dwelling at the time, I can’t say I’m feeling particularly lenient, although I suppose in the event we get an apology from the kids, an offer to pay for the damages, and a promise this won’t happen again, I’ll be satisfied.
I’ll make an update when there’s one to make.
NIMBY is typically reserved for those knee-jerk sort of reactions people have to things they know are occurring elsewhere, yet simply wish not to happen to them. I think your case is different in that no one wants this to happen to anyone… anywhere!
I would lean hard on them. Due to your particular line of work, you have something in your possession that can be very intimidating if seen by most people. If it’s not too entirely unproper, I would suggest you consider having it displayed if the parents are not initially as responsive as you consider appropriate. Hopefully you will not have to go “there”.
A home is a man’s castle and his family’s fortress. Those who violate its boundaries in such a way (as you indicate, a felonious way), must be dealt with so that the perps will not do similarly to others and so other perps will not follow, seeing no consequence to such actions.
You might consider taking your kids with you to meet the parents. If the parents don’t respect your family, then at least your family can see the proper way to handle such things.
Good job thus far and I look forward to the update(s).
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