Hi guys,

Over the weekend we have been experiencing problems with some of the local kids climbing over our back wall into our garden. They've been walking on top of the wall, and also on top of the rabbit hutch/run I've built (fortunatley it's quite strong!)

Anyway, the 1st time I caught them I hurrled some abuse at them and got some back. Unfortunatley that only antagonised (spl?) them and they did it again a few hours later.

This time my next door neighbour also got annoyed and came out. Resulting in him wandering round to the park behind my house and having a 'word' with the kids involved.

This seemed to work for the rest of Sunday. But then yesterday they were back at it. SO I went out and tried the 'nicey-nice' approach and had a 5-10min chat with them, about why were they doing it, and could they please stop. Got some sensible conversation from the eldest (about 14) and he said that they'd stop.....

4 hours later they're back, but only the eldest and another older lad (about 16), throwing mud onto the conservatory roof.

Opened the backdoor and went out but they'd legged it.

Myself and my girlfriend are getting to our wits end with it.

Being back at work today, and no-one at home, we took the precaution of moving the rabbits into the garage, as we didn't want to risk the kids letting them out.

We're no going to try ignoring the kids and seeing if they get bored/fedup with getting no reaction from us.

Anyone else experienced this ?!? Any advice ?!?

I've comtemplated ringing the local community bobby and asking their advice on what to do.

Cheers,
Andy

I got rid of the little herberts who were throwing mud at our front room windows and shouting abuse at me and my husband, by calmly going outside and taking their photos. When they asked me what I was doing, I told them that the police had advised me to do it so that there could be positive identification (load of all rubbish actually, but it did the trick)...

How about getting one of those new alarms that only young peoples ears can hear? They just go off permanently and apparently really affect young people who can no longer bare to be near it. Adults ears have change din such a way that they can't even hear the sound.

A lot of shops are getting them now to stop kids hanging around.

Phone the police EVERY TIME they climb on the wall, enter your garden or throw stuff on to your property. Keep your own records too.

That way, when you finally go postal and shoot one of them in the back at least you'll have something to support your plea of insanity in court.

We had a similar thing in one of our past houses - in fact it was a major factor in our moving, so I feel for you.

Unfortunately our neighbour took the "be nice to them" approach to protect himself and used to give then bottles of beer now and again. One night we came home to find our front window smashed with a beer bottle... his house was always fine.

The police were worse than useless. I got sick of them saying they knew who they were but couldn't do anything about it.

As I say we moved, the picture taking thing might work.

string em up

quote:

Originally posted by Jalopeno:
I got rid of the little herberts who were throwing mud at our front room windows and shouting abuse at me and my husband, by calmly going outside and taking their photos. When they asked me what I was doing, I told them that the police had advised me to do it so that there could be positive identification (load of all rubbish actually, but it did the trick)...

this one sounds like a sensible idea to me.

Ary.

quote:

Originally posted by bclark1:
How about getting one of those new alarms that only young peoples ears can hear? They just go off permanently and apparently really affect young people who can no longer bare to be near it. Adults ears have change din such a way that they can't even hear the sound.

A lot of shops are getting them now to stop kids hanging around.

I suspect any Bjork recording may have the same effect (and would be cheaper)

quote:

Originally posted by Jalopeno:
I got rid of the little herberts who were throwing mud at our front room windows and shouting abuse at me and my husband, by calmly going outside and taking their photos. When they asked me what I was doing, I told them that the police had advised me to do it so that there could be positive identification (load of all rubbish actually, but it did the trick)...

I can just imagine getting a knock on the door a couple of hours later from the kids parent saying 'give us that picture of my child or I'm telling everyone you're a perv' I always blame the parents - it seems that they always take the side of their little 'angel'.
Saying that my parents had the same problem and used their video camera to film the little sh*ites in action - they don't get trouble any more.

Also be careful what if anything you say or do - when my parents had trouble the police kept telling them not to provoke the nuisances. So don't give them any ammunition - try and find out who they are and where they come from - they like to operate under anonymity if poss. The parents are generally worse than their kids and in my parents case actively encouraged them tellingthem to try to get my dad to hit them so they could them beat the c**p out of him. I do feel for you - until it hapepns to you no one has any idea of who intrusive and irritating it can be having these deadbeats constantly pestering you. I was alwyas very tempted to tell them to get a life.

We had a problem something like this in our last house. Kids constantly sitting on our fence, loitering by the streetlight that was up against our house, climbing the tree in the front garden.

Bf kept telling them to stop it, eventually one (a huge one who said he was 15, but looked more like 20), said "Make me." Now this is not something you say to my bf without him actually doing it!

Cops came round, but nothing actually came of it. Kids learned their lesson though, left our front garden alone.

We have also had the odd problem with this over the years, it seems kids are the same wherever you live. I usually find it's best to ignore them if at all possible, they do eventually get bored with the lack of response. Retaliating normally results in more trouble for yourself. This was the case with our neighbours who told off some little kids (around 10-11 yrs old) for trespassing in a nearby builders yard where they appeared to be playing with some tools (obviously this advice was as much for the kids own safety as anything) They promptly retaliated that evening by spray painting their front lawn with graffiti (obscene words, mostly spelled wrong which was quite funny!) and piling turf from the builders yard up against their front door so that when they opened the door it all fell in the house!

I inherited this problem from previous neighbours.

The solution (as mentioned above) is to be aggressive with them and take photos. I also called the police and they were very supportive.

Consider why your garden is relatively apealing and do sonething about it. The garden I moved into had obvious atttractions.

I demolished two sheds that were a long way from the house that could be reached by climbing the fence.

I cut down a tree that (inexplicably) was in front of the patio door and so blocked the view of the garden.

I had the local council to cut down the branches of their trees that were overhanging my garden.

The one useful thing that the previous owners had done was to plant prickly trees against the part of the fence that they used to climb over.

Id put plastic spikes on top of the fence and also the rabbit hutch. Id also get a security light that lights up the garden when movement is detected.
Sounds like the kids are bored, by winding you up their getting a kick and the more you bite, the more they'll do it.
The camera idea is good, id get onto the police
and let them sort it out. Taking them on yourself is probably what the kids want.

Forgot to say that we also put an intruder light on our garage. Whenever someone walks onto our drive the light goes on.... You could put one up at the back of your house.

quote:

Originally posted by Flump:
Id put plastic spikes on top of the fence and also the rabbit hutch. Id also get a security light that lights up the garden when movement is detected.
Sounds like the kids are bored, by winding you up their getting a kick and the more you bite, the more they'll do it.
The camera idea is good, id get onto the police
and let them sort it out. Taking them on yourself is probably what the kids want.

For plastic spikes you'll need to put a notice on t'other side of fence saying you've installed razor wire or some such otherwise the elf 'n' safety will be after you. Forget photographs - the brats only need to call the police and say you're a pedo and that's you in trouble not them.

Carpet gripper rod is good at stopping people climbing on walls and fences.

quote:

Originally posted by vbland:
I inherited this problem from previous neighbours.

The solution (as mentioned above) is to be aggressive with them and take photos. I also called the police and they were very supportive.

Consider why your garden is relatively apealing and do sonething about it. The garden I moved into had obvious atttractions.

I demolished two sheds that were a long way from the house that could be reached by climbing the fence.

I cut down a tree that (inexplicably) was in front of the patio door and so blocked the view of the garden.

I had the local council to cut down the branches of their trees that were overhanging my garden.

The one useful thing that the previous owners had done was to plant prickly trees against the part of the fence that they used to climb over.

It depends on where you live as to whether your local Police will be supportive, depends how much of their time is taken up with this fairly insignificant problem, compared to burglary and murder anyway!

It's a bit drastic to have to alter your property to stop kids tampering with your stuff, but I guess sometimes it's the only way. I would move if I had that much of a problem, luckily, by ignoring the troublemakers, mine have always got bored and gone away, I will not give them the satisfaction of rising to their bait. The trouble is, these things can get so out of hand if you let them, being aggressive is not the answer.

I forgot to say though, the prickly trees are a really good idea, if you have a fence that needs guarding, grow a pyracantha up it, that will stop the little blighters!

They will eventually get bored, not least because they are kids/teenagers and will grow up a bit. If it's young kids they'll be on to something else when they are teens, if it's teens they'll be the same when they're a bit older.

It shouldn't be the case, but these louts have a habit of getting worse if they know it's bugging you. It's easy to become a target where everyone else is being left alone.

So I wholeheartedly agree with the prickly bushes and things like that, but if it gets serious where there's vandalism or theft then you must get the police involved. Once they know things are going on they'll take a better view to you taking photos etc.

My boyfriend has been victimised terribly of late and he's refusing to give in to these teens, but they are targetting him more than ever now. The police are on the case but can't do anything without witnesses (it's mainly obscene graffiti on fences but there have been other incidences) or catching them in the act.

My husband and I guarded our new imprinted concrete drive for hours whilst it dried. We were stll watching at dusk when one of three lads very deliberately stepped over the bunting and stomped the width of the path before returning to the pavement. My husband shot out shouting expletives at him and caught up in about 30 mts or so .Shouted to me to get the camera, grabbed louts upperarm and propelled him back to the drive where he remonstrated with him. In just 2 minutes there was a gang of 15 abusive menacing yobs around us. I had taken pics of everyone involved. Next doors came out saying he had called the police, and they all shot off. Although we had footprints, we couldnt yet tell how badly the drive was affected because of the temporary dressing , but we decided to report the incident in case the yobs returned after the pubs emptied.
The police listened disinterestedly until,he asked how we had got the lad back to the drive At that point he came to life, gave us an incident number saying that if the lad reported my husband for assault (the propelling back to the drive), they would be taking it VERY seriously!
The next night I woke to find 3 youths at the concrete with a metal post and a hammer. They ran off unsuccessful . The following night half our shrubs were kicked to death. We got security lights , left the shrubs as they were for a few weeks, then quietly replaced them gradually just one at a time, and have had no trouble since touch wood. The concrete damage turned out to be minimalthank goodness.

Do not retaliate or go out to them. That's what they want.

Do not take photos for the reasons already stated.

Call the police every single time it happens, on the non-emergency number (using 999 will be counter-productive) and insist they give you a reference number, sometimes known as a log number or incident number - that means they'll be forced to make a record of it instead of fobbing you off. Ask to speak to your local crime prevention officer and the "beat manager" responsible for your street. Find out their name.

If they are not helpful, ask to speak to your beat manager by name. If they are still not helpful, attend in person and ask to speak to the Duty Inspector.

Your garden would also benefit from a redesign. Grow prickly plants over the fence and on top of the hutch - or move the hutch. DON'T use carpet gripper rods they are just as illegal as barbed wire. A security light might help as might a CCTV camera.

Burn them!

no, you can only burn witches, it is the law.