House worry - windows having stuff thrown at them.

ally18

I may have put this in the wrong place but wondered if anyone could advise.

I live right next door to a public footpath which joins two residential streets. At one end, there are houses both sides of the footpath and houses over the road immediately opposite the path entry. At my end there is just my house and a builders yard and then a field opposite.

I have lived here for many years and not had too much trouble but over the last year or so, it has changed. I am now regularly having groups of kids hanging around the entry to the path and on the path itself at my end because its easier to run on to the field this end. So they are right outside my house and where my car is. Some misbehaving, some not. The trouble is though, I have been having my house windows regularly covered in eggs and other stuff. They seem to think its funny to throw the eggs over the fence to see which windows they can hit and its getting beyond a joke.

I have tried asking them not to do it, I've tried yelling at them I'm calling the police but nothing has any effect. The police are not interested as they are not causing any damage. I don't know these kids so having words with parents is a def no go. The abuse I get from them is just ridiculous, I'm quite wordly but some of the things they throw at me is just unbelievable. I just want it to stop. Its not much fun wondering whats been thrown each time you get up in a morning and then opening blinds to the mess it causes.

I have looked at moving but its not an option. I have even started to look into the rights of this public footpath wondering if I can find some way of getting it closed but I guess that is just wishful thinking.

I don't know how to deal with this anymore. I'm getting so that I can't enjoy my garden anymore either because of the feeling of anger at listening to the comments coming from them.

Can anyone advise on what to do because I don't know how to deal with it now. Do I just turn a blind eye and keep cleaning it up when it happens and leave them to it? Believe me, what I want to do is get hold of them physically but obviously that is out the question! One day my windows are going to be smashed though!

Thanks

Noctu

Sorry to hear you're having issues.

This is antisocial behaviour and the police must deal with it - having said that I think this is something that would be 'delegated' to PCSOs.

Have a Google of the police force in your area and see if you can find any contact details for the anti social behaviour team (or similar).

Also even if you get nowhere, be sure to call your police non-emergency number EVERY TIME it happens, get it logged and get a reference - as that's how they gain evidence against these kids (which then means more resources allocated to the problem, a history of call outs which could, if needed, be used for ASBOs/prosecutions etc)

I would personally recommend that you do not engage these kids any further as it may cause retaliation, leave the anti social behaviour team to deal with it once you've managed to get hold of them.

Speaking from experience.... (and thankfully, success)

Good luck.

fluffnutter

ally18 wrote: »

The police are not interested as they are not causing any damage.

Typical initial fob-off response from your local constabulary <sigh>. Having eggs repeatedly thrown at your windows is anti-social behaviour and is most definitely a concern for the police. How have you been contacting them? An emergency call is not appropriate, what you need to do is find out who your neighbourhood bobby is and approach them. Each police force should have a department that deals with neighbourhood watch, community liaison etc. and that's who you should be targeting.

You can also try your local council. They too should have a department that deals with antisocial behaviour.

Check out the link below to the government's advice on anti-social behaviour. But don't put up with it; you shouldn't have to. Good luck.

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/crimejusticeandthelaw/crimeprevention/dg_4001652

Person_one

Open the window and throw some eggs back at them?

justjohn

install CCTV, A GOOD QUALITY SYSTEM WITH DATE AND TIME STAMP.

Call the fuzz each time there is a disturbance. contact your local community police.
Unsure were you are, but the smaller the place....the better the police are at handling this carp.

We have called the police on occasion and they attend in 5-15 mins.

anything from shouting to kicking football in middle of road/against public toilets.

report,take note and time off each disturbance.

Unfortunately there seems to be an acceptable standard area too area

gingin_2

Person_one wrote: »

Open the window and throw some eggs back at them?

I would do exactly that too. If the police won't get involved you have to beat them at their own game.

Can you borrow a large dog for a while as well?

heretolearn_2

start playing tom jones or something equally easy listening out the window really loud when they hang about and you want to get shot? Or a bagpipes record?

Otherwise it's awful, you can't say anything directly as they'd probably get worse. Keep nagging police/ask for their antisocial behaviour team/the local community police team. Also council.

Mojisola

If you can't get the police to do what they should be doing, there's the Mosquito - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mosquito - or simply playing classical music which some shopping malls do to stop teenagers hanging around.

PasturesNew

If you don't use the path, can you collect local doggy doo and make sure there's always plenty of it near your house every day until they've finally f00ked off?

Smear it round the pavement sufficient that they can't pick it up and lob it - and so it's offputting for them as they might get it on their shoes/clothes.

I'd also see if I could get anything like a "skunk smell spray".

itzmee

We had a couple of incidents where teenage kids were throwing eggs at our house. We called the police but they weren't in a hurry to put theirselves out to come and see us. They soon changed their tune when DH phoned them and said the lads were outside and if they didn't get here soon then they would have to arrest him for assault - they arrived within 5 minutes . I really understand your pain as dried egg is a pain to get rid of - even with a jet cleaner. In our case we knew who the kids were as they had had a fall out with DS, and a visit from the police put an end it.

pimento

When this happened to us, I got in my car, followed them down to the shops, got out of my car with my camera and said "Smile!", when the gobbiest asked what I was doing, I told them the police had advised me to do it so I could identify who had been playing silly b0ll0ck$.

That was the last time they did it.