Intimidation

Blogroll Me!I have had a exhausting last couple days just worrying about my property. I ran these children (pictured) off my porch and yard two days ago. They live about 50 yards away. The next thing I know their dads friend brings them right up to the edge of my steps and starts throwing football with them. They must have told him I ran them off and he didn't like it, so he brought them right up to where I would see that he wasn't going to be run off. The chances of them hitting my mailbox or my car were pretty good but they were playing in the street. I let it ride because I want to get along with them...I just don't want them in my yard or walking into my unlocked house when I am at the foot of my steps. I have it on good authority that these children know no boundaries.

But today I saw 4 teenagers step into the woods for a few minutes and return with a backpack. I wouldn't have thought much about that except the leader told the kid with the backpack to take it back into the woods. He was gone about 45 seconds and then they disappeared up by the invasive neighbors house. I wondered why these boys were not in school and why they were all dressed in black and the obvious question about what was in the black backpack that had to be stashed in the woods.
I called my good neighbor who told me she thought they were looking for a dog. I knew they were not. So I tell her what I had observed and she tells me she is going to consult her husband. She calls me back and I see her husband go into the woods right where the boys had gone in. It turns out he is a former Columbus police officer. He comes back out shaking his head and says there is much more than the black back pack back in there. He calls the property owner and they come down and remove big screen TVs, computers, games, the black backpack and a water cooler bottle full of cash. They put that in the trunk of their car and they drive away presumably to call the police.
Not long after that a grey car pulls up even with my truck and I can't really see it because my tree and truck are hiding it. I hear two doors open and close and the car speeds away. I notice an adult is driving the car. I realize that adults are involved in the theft ring at this point. Not long after that a red car pulls up and 2 teenagers get out and go back into the woods while two adults sit in the car waiting for them. I call my good neighbor again and ask her if she can get the license plate number. My neighbors husband comes out again and yells up the license plate # to her and asks the boys and the car if they have lost something. They speed away, tires squealing and car smoking.
I wish I could say that was the end of it, but it wasn't and it probably is not over just yet as all the evidence is circumstantial.
Two more boys showed up on foot looking in the woods and swinging two sticks walking two and fro under my bay window. The neighbor with the children who had tried to intimidate me the day before; He ran up the street as if he was on a mission of some kind. I had to wonder if he is in all this. I have heard he is a thief and his children are thieves (which is why I don't want them in my yard). My good neighbors husband had gone back to his job after running off the thieves, so she and I had to tough it out till he could get back here.
We all thought it was over when he chased the second car away....but we were wrong. I called her to tell her they are back and she tells me they have been up on her porch knocking on her door, she has called her husband and needs to hang up, put the baby down and go get her side arm. She tells me if I hear gunshots to call the police. I continue to see them below me swing big sticks around in an aggressive manner. I know they have come back for their loot and they would have beat her if she let them in, and didn't defend herself. I know that with every fiber of my being. I survived a home invasion in 2002. I came out beaten within an inch of my life and my bank account emptied out, but alive and the cops were not ever able to nab those people, even though I told them exactly who they were.
The cops this time didn't show up till very late in the day to take my statement and I believe I can hear people in the woods tonight, along with their hip hop tunes playing too loud; if you don't want to be seen or heard you don't walk around playing loud music.
We are taking back our block and woods. We will not be intimidated.