Ding dong ditching and cops brought home

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You should have taken all kids home immediately or called their parents to come get them.

Also, you didn't say they snuck out so I assume you let them go to a park at ten pm. You are drastically out of touch with the reality of how teens think and behave, especially in a group. Very bad idea.

x1000

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The other parents should have been called immediately so they can come and collect their children from someone who clearly has terrible judgment and is not supervising the kids.

I’d be furious if I let my kid stay with you and you let them roam around with friends at night waking people up and getting in trouble with the police.

This. I would be beside myself with anger ... at you, OP, and at myself for my lapse in judgment that I thought you were up to the task. You need to be incredibly grateful, OP, that the police officers gave you this teachable moment. Take it now and learn.

[Anonymous]

I'm more surprised that OP let a group of 13 year olds wander around at 10pm. Look, I'm all for having my kid roam during daylight - but 13 is a bit young for that. Perhaps it's just me.

That being said, if the police came because of something my child did at your house, I'd want to know ASAP.

[Anonymous]

I never did this…. But I remember friends ordering stacks of dominoes pizzas to be delivered to a randos home. Of course this was before caller ID and people paid cash on delivery.. and then hiding outside in the bushes to watch it all unfold.

For some reason we all thought this was the height of hilarity. We were young, unsupervised and bored.

30 years later and not a felon in the bunch. I think we all got it out of our systems early. By the time we were out in our own we’d made every bad decision a kids could make and lived to tell the tale.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They should be made to go apologize in person to the people whose doors they knocked on, that sort of personal accountability will make them think twice before messing with other people again. And let's call it what it is -- messing with other people. Messing with their sleep, their peace and quiet, maybe their peace of mind. Some people here clearly think it's okay to do that, that it's not a big deal. I personally think it's sending the wrong message to anyone, and especially boys, that they can do that and it's okay.

This is probably colored by my own experience. We had a night of ding-dong-ditchers of a group of teen boys in my old neighborhood and it escalated to where they were not only pounding violently on people's front doors, they were jumping on cars up and down the street at 2 a.m. My DH and I woke up terrified that someone was trying to break in. He grabbed a ballbat when he went to the door, and multiple neighbors on the street would have answered the door with guns. The boys caused tens of thousands of dollars of damage to vehicles, including to my DH's vehicle.

We found out later that ONE boy of the group, when he saw how things were going sideways, left to go home and not participate. I sometimes think about the amount of guts that took and hope I could raise my kids to be like that boy. The rest of them got picked up by the police and identities confirmed w/ various doorbell cameras. They had to go through the court system and pay at least some restitution to the people.

We had another incident in our old neighborhood where someone's kid was roaming at night, crawled into someone else's house through a dog door and set their place on fire.

You never know what your kid might get up to when they are roaming at night with no adult supervision, but you can bet that, being teenagers, they will egg each other on and dare each other to do things that they know they wouldn't get away with if they were with their parents.

Please stop Karen

Seriously. They...rang a doorbell.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I never did this…. But I remember friends ordering stacks of dominoes pizzas to be delivered to a randos home. Of course this was before caller ID and people paid cash on delivery.. and then hiding outside in the bushes to watch it all unfold.

For some reason we all thought this was the height of hilarity. We were young, unsupervised and bored.

30 years later and not a felon in the bunch. I think we all got it out of our systems early. By the time we were out in our own we’d made every bad decision a kids could make and lived to tell the tale.

So glad it all worked out for you! I'm sure the pizza shop, the delivery guy, the man/woman who answered the door.... I'm sure they all got together and had a big laugh and hugged it out. Harmless, since it didn't harm YOU, amiright?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They should be made to go apologize in person to the people whose doors they knocked on, that sort of personal accountability will make them think twice before messing with other people again. And let's call it what it is -- messing with other people. Messing with their sleep, their peace and quiet, maybe their peace of mind. Some people here clearly think it's okay to do that, that it's not a big deal. I personally think it's sending the wrong message to anyone, and especially boys, that they can do that and it's okay.

This is probably colored by my own experience. We had a night of ding-dong-ditchers of a group of teen boys in my old neighborhood and it escalated to where they were not only pounding violently on people's front doors, they were jumping on cars up and down the street at 2 a.m. My DH and I woke up terrified that someone was trying to break in. He grabbed a ballbat when he went to the door, and multiple neighbors on the street would have answered the door with guns. The boys caused tens of thousands of dollars of damage to vehicles, including to my DH's vehicle.

We found out later that ONE boy of the group, when he saw how things were going sideways, left to go home and not participate. I sometimes think about the amount of guts that took and hope I could raise my kids to be like that boy. The rest of them got picked up by the police and identities confirmed w/ various doorbell cameras. They had to go through the court system and pay at least some restitution to the people.

We had another incident in our old neighborhood where someone's kid was roaming at night, crawled into someone else's house through a dog door and set their place on fire.

You never know what your kid might get up to when they are roaming at night with no adult supervision, but you can bet that, being teenagers, they will egg each other on and dare each other to do things that they know they wouldn't get away with if they were with their parents.

Please stop Karen

Seriously. They...rang a doorbell.

Eh if I'm home alone with my 2 and 3 year olds and the house is dark and quiet, it's 11pm, I'm almost asleep, and then my DOORBELL starts ringing? I'd be pretty freaked out. Why is it supposed to be funny to scare people late at night like that? I don't know that this pack of teenage guys is harmless when I look out my window and see a bunch of them hiding in my shrubs or behind a parked car on the street. I'd think they were trying to get me to open the door so they could rush in and rob us. It's not an uncommon strategy to break into a house- just lure the owner to the door somehow. I don't get why this is supposed to be funny.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They should be made to go apologize in person to the people whose doors they knocked on, that sort of personal accountability will make them think twice before messing with other people again. And let's call it what it is -- messing with other people. Messing with their sleep, their peace and quiet, maybe their peace of mind. Some people here clearly think it's okay to do that, that it's not a big deal. I personally think it's sending the wrong message to anyone, and especially boys, that they can do that and it's okay.

This is probably colored by my own experience. We had a night of ding-dong-ditchers of a group of teen boys in my old neighborhood and it escalated to where they were not only pounding violently on people's front doors, they were jumping on cars up and down the street at 2 a.m. My DH and I woke up terrified that someone was trying to break in. He grabbed a ballbat when he went to the door, and multiple neighbors on the street would have answered the door with guns. The boys caused tens of thousands of dollars of damage to vehicles, including to my DH's vehicle.

We found out later that ONE boy of the group, when he saw how things were going sideways, left to go home and not participate. I sometimes think about the amount of guts that took and hope I could raise my kids to be like that boy. The rest of them got picked up by the police and identities confirmed w/ various doorbell cameras. They had to go through the court system and pay at least some restitution to the people.

We had another incident in our old neighborhood where someone's kid was roaming at night, crawled into someone else's house through a dog door and set their place on fire.

You never know what your kid might get up to when they are roaming at night with no adult supervision, but you can bet that, being teenagers, they will egg each other on and dare each other to do things that they know they wouldn't get away with if they were with their parents.

Please stop Karen

Seriously. They...rang a doorbell.

Eh if I'm home alone with my 2 and 3 year olds and the house is dark and quiet, it's 11pm, I'm almost asleep, and then my DOORBELL starts ringing? I'd be pretty freaked out. Why is it supposed to be funny to scare people late at night like that? I don't know that this pack of teenage guys is harmless when I look out my window and see a bunch of them hiding in my shrubs or behind a parked car on the street. I'd think they were trying to get me to open the door so they could rush in and rob us. It's not an uncommon strategy to break into a house- just lure the owner to the door somehow. I don't get why this is supposed to be funny.

Because kids are not adults. Some of them laugh at things that are absolutely NOT FUNNY. I don't understand why they laugh since it's NOT FUNNY AT ALL. Yet they do. Cuz they're kids, not adults.

[Anonymous]

This thread just shows how terrible this generation is at parenting. You keep tabs on your kids and make all of their decisions until they leave for college and you wonder why drop out rates are at an all time high.

13yr olds were out at 10pm and ding dong ditching. Kids make dumb funny decisions sometimes and this is innocent. I am shocked the police even came to the parents door. What a waste of resources calling 911 on a door bell ring at 10pm.

I would set on fire a brown paper bag of dog poop on your porch the next night.

Bunch of helicopter loser parents

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They should be made to go apologize in person to the people whose doors they knocked on, that sort of personal accountability will make them think twice before messing with other people again. And let's call it what it is -- messing with other people. Messing with their sleep, their peace and quiet, maybe their peace of mind. Some people here clearly think it's okay to do that, that it's not a big deal. I personally think it's sending the wrong message to anyone, and especially boys, that they can do that and it's okay.

This is probably colored by my own experience. We had a night of ding-dong-ditchers of a group of teen boys in my old neighborhood and it escalated to where they were not only pounding violently on people's front doors, they were jumping on cars up and down the street at 2 a.m. My DH and I woke up terrified that someone was trying to break in. He grabbed a ballbat when he went to the door, and multiple neighbors on the street would have answered the door with guns. The boys caused tens of thousands of dollars of damage to vehicles, including to my DH's vehicle.

We found out later that ONE boy of the group, when he saw how things were going sideways, left to go home and not participate. I sometimes think about the amount of guts that took and hope I could raise my kids to be like that boy. The rest of them got picked up by the police and identities confirmed w/ various doorbell cameras. They had to go through the court system and pay at least some restitution to the people.

We had another incident in our old neighborhood where someone's kid was roaming at night, crawled into someone else's house through a dog door and set their place on fire.

You never know what your kid might get up to when they are roaming at night with no adult supervision, but you can bet that, being teenagers, they will egg each other on and dare each other to do things that they know they wouldn't get away with if they were with their parents.

Please stop Karen

You stop, lazy, crappy parent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They should be made to go apologize in person to the people whose doors they knocked on, that sort of personal accountability will make them think twice before messing with other people again. And let's call it what it is -- messing with other people. Messing with their sleep, their peace and quiet, maybe their peace of mind. Some people here clearly think it's okay to do that, that it's not a big deal. I personally think it's sending the wrong message to anyone, and especially boys, that they can do that and it's okay.

This is probably colored by my own experience. We had a night of ding-dong-ditchers of a group of teen boys in my old neighborhood and it escalated to where they were not only pounding violently on people's front doors, they were jumping on cars up and down the street at 2 a.m. My DH and I woke up terrified that someone was trying to break in. He grabbed a ballbat when he went to the door, and multiple neighbors on the street would have answered the door with guns. The boys caused tens of thousands of dollars of damage to vehicles, including to my DH's vehicle.

We found out later that ONE boy of the group, when he saw how things were going sideways, left to go home and not participate. I sometimes think about the amount of guts that took and hope I could raise my kids to be like that boy. The rest of them got picked up by the police and identities confirmed w/ various doorbell cameras. They had to go through the court system and pay at least some restitution to the people.

We had another incident in our old neighborhood where someone's kid was roaming at night, crawled into someone else's house through a dog door and set their place on fire.

You never know what your kid might get up to when they are roaming at night with no adult supervision, but you can bet that, being teenagers, they will egg each other on and dare each other to do things that they know they wouldn't get away with if they were with their parents.

Please stop Karen

You stop, lazy, crappy parent.

Put the bottle down and go to bed Groucho.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP was naïve for thinking six eighth graders would go innocently play at a park at 10pm, the kids were typical dumb teenagers, deciding that annoying neighbors would be fun (who does this in the era of doorbell cameras?), and police resources were used to break up mischief rather than go after actual criminals, but the biggest problem by far is that this is a country where there are enough people who would shoot a gun at someone fleeing their home after ringing the doorbell that the police predict you’ll get shot for doing that. That’s extremely disturbing.

It's also wrong to think that 13 year old kids are always up to no good and can't or shouldn't go out to play.

7th graders don't need to be "out to play" at 10:00PM, but then, you already knew that and you're just trolling for attention.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They should be made to go apologize in person to the people whose doors they knocked on, that sort of personal accountability will make them think twice before messing with other people again. And let's call it what it is -- messing with other people. Messing with their sleep, their peace and quiet, maybe their peace of mind. Some people here clearly think it's okay to do that, that it's not a big deal. I personally think it's sending the wrong message to anyone, and especially boys, that they can do that and it's okay.

This is probably colored by my own experience. We had a night of ding-dong-ditchers of a group of teen boys in my old neighborhood and it escalated to where they were not only pounding violently on people's front doors, they were jumping on cars up and down the street at 2 a.m. My DH and I woke up terrified that someone was trying to break in. He grabbed a ballbat when he went to the door, and multiple neighbors on the street would have answered the door with guns. The boys caused tens of thousands of dollars of damage to vehicles, including to my DH's vehicle.

We found out later that ONE boy of the group, when he saw how things were going sideways, left to go home and not participate. I sometimes think about the amount of guts that took and hope I could raise my kids to be like that boy. The rest of them got picked up by the police and identities confirmed w/ various doorbell cameras. They had to go through the court system and pay at least some restitution to the people.

We had another incident in our old neighborhood where someone's kid was roaming at night, crawled into someone else's house through a dog door and set their place on fire.

You never know what your kid might get up to when they are roaming at night with no adult supervision, but you can bet that, being teenagers, they will egg each other on and dare each other to do things that they know they wouldn't get away with if they were with their parents.

Please stop Karen

You stop, lazy, crappy parent.

Y

Put the bottle down and go to bed Groucho.

Go to bed. You have school in the morning, idiot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP was naïve for thinking six eighth graders would go innocently play at a park at 10pm, the kids were typical dumb teenagers, deciding that annoying neighbors would be fun (who does this in the era of doorbell cameras?), and police resources were used to break up mischief rather than go after actual criminals, but the biggest problem by far is that this is a country where there are enough people who would shoot a gun at someone fleeing their home after ringing the doorbell that the police predict you’ll get shot for doing that. That’s extremely disturbing.

It's also wrong to think that 13 year old kids are always up to no good and can't or shouldn't go out to play.

7th graders don't need to be "out to play" at 10:00PM, but then, you already knew that and you're just trolling for attention.

No, not a troll. You never played out with your friends after drak ever? Not even in summer?

[Anonymous]

OP here. I see it got resurrected. Update:

The next day I made sure all the parents knew. Some kids had already told their parents as we discussed. They all were surprised the police were called but they were glad I told them what the police told them about being shot at. And that it was a sad state of affairs that it has come to this.

And to be clear it’s not like they were in a police car. The police came to my house because the boys told them where they were staying and the boys walked back over from half a block away.

They certainly learned their lesson. Nobody thinks what they did was OK.