Horrid local teens - vandalising my house!

Sorry I just have to vent about the obnoxious teens who live hang around outside my house.

We have for a long time had problems with gangs of kids outside the house. For the most part they are just noisy for a few hours in the evening and then go. We live opposite a supermarket which was kind enough to create a series of rockfilled walls which the teens love to play and hang out on. In the past we have had (very rare thankfully!) problems with some of the more stupid children taking the rocks from the walls and chucking them at the houses opposite. Even though they are on the supermarkets property the supermarket does not want to know and you call the local police station to tell them and they say - thanks for telling us! You go out to reason with the teens and they just chuck the rocks at us until we retreat back into the house listening to the rocks hitting and praying they will not cause any damage.

Anyway this evening sitting watching TV with the volume up to drown out the noisy idiots outside. Then I hear the smash. Leap out of my chair dash to the window and see kids scattering. Then I notice the main window has been smashed by what must have been a rock. At least only the outside pane of glass of the double glazed unit has been shattered so we are not open to the world - but it is a big window and I cannot see the repair being cheap. Sitting here now listening to the strange noise of the glass cracking more and more every minute.

I just don't understand them - what is the attraction of chucking rocks at a house?! Are they really so bored that throwing rocks at a stationary target is fun?! The noise I can cope with - but vandalism no way! I have been saving for a few treats but now I am going to have to treat myself to a new window! Sorry just so annoyed!
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Comments

  • pimento
    pimento Posts: 6,243 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts
    CCTV sounds in order. At least you can then (hopefully) identify them and send a bill to thr parents.
    "If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." -- Red Adair
  • yvonne13_2
    yvonne13_2 Posts: 1,955 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Report this to the police
    It's better to regret something I did do than to regret something that I didn’t. :EasterBun
  • DCFC79
    DCFC79 Posts: 40,625 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Contact your local councillor,
  • gordikin
    gordikin Posts: 4,422 Forumite
    DCFC79 wrote: »
    Contact your local councillor,



    ...if you can who they are after AV!
  • 23n1th
    23n1th Posts: 1,523 Forumite
    Get yourself a gillie suit, a hunting knife, a sling shot and a night sight. Go out early and wait for them to congregate. Then follow a different one home each night over the next couple of evenings and smash their windows or go vigilante on them once they're alone.

    That of call the police etc as stated above.
  • fluffnutter
    fluffnutter Posts: 23,179 Forumite
    The police do get a bit of criticism over how they deal with anti-social behaviour. Essentially it's low-level crime and quite difficult to do anything about. Having your window smashed by some kid throwing a rock at your house isn't anti-social behaviour; it's bona fide prosecutable crime and as such I believe the police will take it a little more seriously. It's intensely annoying that it's come to this but get on to your local police force and urge them to tackle not just this particular incident, but the general problem of the kids hanging around throwing rocks and being nuisances.

    Or shoot the little buggers.
    "Growth for growth's sake is the ideology of the cancer cell" - Edward Abbey.
  • Mrs_Arcanum
    Mrs_Arcanum Posts: 23,976 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    It's Criminal Damage IIRC. Have you got a Neighbourhood Action Group in your area? They normally liaise with the police and direct priorities for action; some of which can exactly be dealing with this sort of thing.
    Truth always poses doubts & questions. Only lies are 100% believable, because they don't need to justify reality. - Carlos Ruiz Zafon, The Labyrinth of the Spirits
  • maninthestreet
    maninthestreet Posts: 16,127 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture
    gordikin wrote: »
    ...if you can who they are after AV!

    Even if AV is the winner of the referendum today, it will only apply to Parliamentary elections, not local elections.
    "You were only supposed to blow the bl**dy doors off!!"
  • tanith
    tanith Posts: 8,091 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    Can you not claim on your house insurance?
    #6 of the SKI-ers Club :j

    "All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing" Edmund Burke
  • anotherbaldrick
    anotherbaldrick Posts: 2,335 Forumite
    The accepted method of vermin deterrent is to put the music centre speakers in the garden and blast Barry Manilow at them.
    You scullion! You rampallian! You fustilarian! I’ll tickle your catastrophe (Henry IV part 2)
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