OK so I have felt really old being a bitch to kids smoking, drinking, doing drugs, and having sex in our turnout. Aaah what a million-dollar neighborhood buys you these days. So after being severely vandalized on two occasions I took matters into my own hands and have slept or not slept every Friday night and some Saturdays since April 21st ready to confront the buggers.
So last night my night came. Actually three times. First at midnight when the mysterious red SUV that I had the police come and run the plates on last weekend was back. I again called the police. However after what amounted to a Laurel & Hardy act between my husband and me to get one of our fifteen phones to work at that very moment it was too late. They drove off a mere five minutes after calling the police. Yeah five minutes is enough time to get here but I gather they weren't the only teens up to no good.
So off to bed we went. At 3 a.m. they were back. I was up like our Labrador if someone dropped food. I was going to get these kids. I grabbed our too heavy police flashlight and phone and flew out the front door. All ready to call the police and flash my commanding light at the hoodlums, but the light wouldn't come on and the phone was dead. Can't I buy a break at this point? It is 3 a.m. for goodness sake. After dropping the phone, bad phone, I beat up the flashlight for a few seconds, which made it magically come to my assistance. I then proceeded to deliver my speech: "Hey! Get in your car and get out of here now. I'm done! You have been here twice tonight. If you don't leave this very second I'm going to call the police. Move!"
Yeah, me, my dead phone, and my temperamental flashlight felt pretty good as six or seven teens piled back into their red SUV and drove off.
So a restful night should have followed. NO. Can you believe they came back? I couldn't. So now they aren't just teens pushing the limits of partying and my patience they are officially stupid. At 3:05 a.m. I hear voices outside. Oooh, now I'm just out of control mad. No shouting from my deck down to the turnout. No. Now I'm going to confront them. Oh yeah. I'm officially going to be "that crazy woman."
I fly down my driveway to greet these now two idiots. “Hey”, I say. “I told you to get out of here. Get back in your car and don’t come back.” After a long explanation of just going to a neighbor’s house up behind us (which by the way now includes passing through a neighbor’s locked front gate), walking up his driveway, trespassing on the water district’s property and crawling up the back hill of this destination home, I had officially lost it.
I could no longer think rationally as this kid tells me he was just going to bed and would move the car in the morning with a promise of not parking there again was a good deal. Now I’m the idiot. But maybe not, the jury is still out.
In the morning prior to his return, I decided to walk around the house and our neighbors’ houses to see what they had left besides their car. After picking up six beer cans and a woman’s shoe I decided to get some pictures and of course a license plate.
So at 8:30 a.m. they were back, all of them! Six: five boys and one girl. I made them a note explaining private road law, trespassing law, that their next attempt to park here would result in towing, and that we would have them arrested. Oh, and a picture of his car with all the beer cans and the shoe on the hood with the license plate showing for his photo album…and the police’s.
His last words to me were, “OK, if you don’t want me to park here anymore I won’t”. Um, yeah that would be great, thanks. In my head, “Sonny, you are a smart one.”