Stupid kids throwing firecrackers, practical jokes in general. What can you do?

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Cesiumsponge

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Okay...I might sound like an old crotchety man but why?

For the last few days, I have been hearing increased reports (reports as in sounds, not news reports) late at night from people tossing firecrackers nearby. About half a dozen tonight. Yes, its getting near the 4th of July and yay for Independance Day and I get great joy in celebrating America by blowing up a small piece of it with black powder...but I don't get people who get their kicks by throwing lit blackpowder at people's homes. This area is low on crime but fireworks are banned in the city limits.

Just now some jackoff threw a firecracker near my home and sped off screaming...okay. Of course, the first thing I think is "gunshot", but then I dismiss it as a firecracker after the speeding off and screaming. I've had people drive by and toss individual firecrackers, or even those long strings of firecrackers that last for half a minute...at my home, or around neighboring homes. It's been happening over a few years, and happens several times a year (not necessarily around July 4th only).

How do people here handle things when jackballs decide to throw firecrackers or pull general pranks on or around your property? Usually they're long gone before you know what happened. I don't think its a serious enough issue to call police...or rather they'll be gone before they even do anything about it. Certaintly in most states, you can't use lethal force to defend property at night. I don't know if I'd suggest shooting at stupid kids who think they're having fun when it puts you in red alert. But when you hear a large report go off at or near your home, you don't know what's going on or what the intent is.

Everytime I hear a big boom, it makes me jump and think "gunshot". I don't think there is much I can really do about it. I guess I'm just venting :mad: In typing this up, I've heard a few more go off about a block away.
 
Call the cops, tell them what's going on and they might catch and arrest the goons for vandalizing your property. If the cops can't do anything, do what you got to do and plead "self defense". :evil:
 
They're just kids having their fun... leave 'em alone. Don't be the old grump on the street you probably remember from your childhood.
 
First of all I like firecrackers, there neat however I only shoot them off one day a year and in my backyard. I agree that the idiots that throw them at people (had a friend who almost got blown up by one) and at peoples houses should be shot however impractical due to that annoying jail time. I don't know if this is legal or not but I will tell you my strategy. If I see some ass making a fool out of himself and messing up my property I usually get my airsoft gun that looks like my AR (painted off orange tip) and threaten to shoot them. It works quite well and usually the idiots who try it don't come around for atleast a year. I don't know it's just an idea :confused: . Just if you get mad don't come running out of the house with a pump action.
 
They're just kids having their fun... leave 'em alone. Don't be the old grump on the street you probably remember from your childhood.
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Well I'm not old (22), but considering it's illegal in the city to begin with, and they're throwing it at people's homes, wouldn't that be considered malicious? It's one thing to throw biodegradable toilet paper onto someone's property or wrap someone's mailbox in foil. When kids having "fun" by tossing gunshot-like sound makers at your front door or start igniting your dry summer grass on fire...its along the same lines as people who think its fun to chuck rocks off an overpass.

I used to play with firecrackers back when I was younger. I blew up GI Joes in the privacy of my own backyard when my parents weren't watching as a child (everyone did that, admit it!). I lit them off in the local park where everyone used to do it. Fireworks and firecrackers are a blast for young and old alike. However, I never did driveby firecrackering and threw them at homes or considered that fun.

Maybe I was a boring kid who never got a kick out of drive by firecrackering. Oh well.
 
If I see some ass making a fool out of himself and messing up my property I usually get my airsoft gun that looks like my AR (painted off orange tip) and threaten to shoot them.
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Probably not the best of ideas. First off (unless you went through the whole deal with the FBI to get the orange off) it's illegal to have an airsoft gun w/o an orange tip. Second, that's against the law for threatening their life (yes it isn't real, but they think it is. That's all a lawyer against you would need). Third, if it were me using my airsoft M9, I wouldn't waste my time with the threat, give them a good ~50 BB's. What do you got to lose?
 
The suggestion might be ''tempting'' but would not in any way be legal. Content edited.
 
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Today, 01:34 AM #6
Cesiumsponge
Senior Member

wrote regarding

Quote:
They're just kids having their fun... leave 'em alone. Don't be the old grump on the street you probably remember from your childhood.



Well I'm not old (22) , but considering it's illegal in the city to begin with ...

I used to play with firecrackers back when I was younger. I blew up GI Joes in the privacy of my own backyard when my parents weren't watching as a child (everyone did that, admit it!). I lit them off in the local park where everyone used to do it. Fireworks and firecrackers are a blast for young and old alike. However, I never did driveby firecrackering and threw them at homes or considered that fun.
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hmmmm limited illegality eh ? I'm not 22 ... far beyond that, and I would be downright humbled by the foolishness we kids did with firecrackers, cherry bombs, M-80's, skyrockets ... all in good fun of course ... even when we dropped one to the old grumps mail box down the street ... the one who use to yell at us when we rode our bikes across his lawn (short cut to the 10 cent saturday "all day at the movies" for kids at the neighbohood theatre).

Well I guess folks that drive 75, or 80 down the freeway don't think of themselves as "Law breakers" either. Easy to bash the other guy for his transgressions, and consider ones own as justifiable. Might be some wisdom in the idea to "Leave em alone".

Hook686
 
Well in the state of Washington all that you listed is illegal to buy or possess, the firecrackers, M-80's Cherry bombs and skyrockets.

Dern lawmakers are party-poopers if you ask me.
 
They're just kids having their fun... leave 'em alone. Don't be the old grump on the street you probably remember from your childhood.
Click to expand...

Being an a-hole really shouldn't be fun.
 
Krieg - what you proposed may be tempting but it is illegal. On THR one of our rules is that of not promoting illegal acts! Content edited
 
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None of the fireworks I mentioned were illegal when I was a kid.

I think it could be worse Cesiumsponge :

0e9c288a.gif

or

35e22b8a.gif

Think about it.

Hook686
 
Used to have some punks that would throw firecrackers at my dog, after they had taunted him to the fence.
Apparently they didn't know that they could get charged with animal cruelty for doing it. :D

I agree with the Wombat on this one though, and if firecrackers sound just like gunshots to you, you should get out to the range more often

Being an a-hole really shouldn't be fun.
Click to expand...
Oh, but it is, it really is.
 
LOL well maybe a shotgun filled with rock-salt or epsom salts may help put the bite on some hoodlum's fun by stinging their rears (If you can catch em)
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Very bad idea. That would be aggravated assault or assault with a deadly weapon, depending on how your local prosecutor wants to frame it.

A Super Soaker filled with ice water would be a better approach...though best of all is the video camera idea suggested above.
 
Joab, you have it worse than me, but many of us in FLA get to listen to fireworks going off all night (it seems),; bottle rockets falling in the back yard, etc. I am not crazy about it, but I try really hard to look the other way and let the neighbors enjoy themselves, because sometimes I want them to ignore what I do! I am very glad that we live in a fine conservative state that allows fworks to be purchased, and hope it continues for a few more years.

I like the camera idea!

Dave
 
Fireworks of any kind on YOUR PROPERTY - a-ok in my book. YOUR fireworks on MY PRIVATE PROPERTY - not okay at all. You don't have permission to be doing that, nor is it your property to be potentially damaging by fire.


Henry, I think you'd change your mind PDQ if people start doing this to you when you own a home.
 
I had a similar problem wednesday night.The neighbors next door were lighting off their fountains,sparklers,& other flame shooting stuff.Two things about it pissed me off.1 my car was less than ten feet from where they were lighting off & the smoke was covering my car(it had a fine layer of powder on it the next A.M.) & 2 as we've had no rain in weeks my lawn was dry,yellow tinder & there were sparks flying all over it.Why not say something to them?Well,I live alone & I know that they'll start right back up just as soon as I'm gone.They've done it before.Call the cops?Nope,not unless they really damage something.

When I was a kid the "grumpy old man" would turn on his sprinkler system any time us neighbor kids started fooling around his yard. :D
 
I know the feeling. Unfortunately I live in a subdivision that is outside city limits so the cops aren't going to do a thing. Technically the homeowner's association prohibits fireworks in the neighborhood but they lack enforcement power and nobody reads what they've signed anyways so boom boom crack crack all night when it's a holiday. I was finding damn bottle rockets for months after the last time, and they land on my roof too. Worries me a bit.

I threw all the trash I found back over the neighbors fence the next day.
 
Crosshair, you got it wrong.

#4 is Profit. #3 is ????. :)


I was just thinking that a 12 gauge going off into the air as they drive by would make them think twice about come by that particular neighborhood again. No need to actually shoot at them. :) That and/or a good spot light.
 
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