So this afternoon I see a couple kids who look to be about 12 years old cutting through the backyard next door. Knowing that they are going to continue into the yard behind me by climbing my fence I step outside to yell at them for climbing my fence (that is my job).
One kid had already made it over (white kid) and one was in the process (black kid) when I yelled at him about climbing on my stuff. I was momentarily stunned when he said “Sorry sir” as he continued over the fence. “Sir”, especially when combined with an apology for a inappropriate action is generally not in the vocabulary of most kids in my zip code (sadly).
I watched them as they stopped in the back yard behind me, made a phone call (I will never get used to the idea of 12 year olds with cell phones) and then walked out onto the street in front of that house and climbed into a car.
And I thought nothing more of it until I saw the police car two doors down about a half hour later.
Turns out these two 12 year old kids climbed in a window of a neighbors house and stole a laptop computer, jewelry, an ipad and a host of other portable electronic doo dads.
I didn’t notice anything in the hands of the kid climbing the fence but it could have already been handed over and their coats had lots of room to conceal things.
Turns out another neighbor saw the same two kids walking into the back yard of the house that was broken into but simply assumed they were retrieving a ball or something like that.
To make matters worse they went in during a 45 minute window while the neighbors went to get lunch which suggests much more than a spur of the moment opportunity crime and they entered a house that has a very large and aggressive doberman (which the neighbors sadly confined to a bedroom).
Now I know kids take crap, pretty sure I did at that age. But this isn’t taking something out of the yard, this is also way beyond stealing another kids bike off the lawn. These little bastards are going after big stuff and they don’t seem to be afraid of very much.
I’m positive the adult (or adults) that are involved in training them have told them nothing serious can happen to them given their age. And fuck me if that isn’t mostly true. Not only will the courts do virtually nothing IF they happen to get caught, even a home owner is limited to the actions he can or would be willing to take.
I’m 99% positive I couldn’t drop a hammer on a 12 year old that wasn’t holding a weapon. I’m not ever sure I could kick the snot out of the little bastards. I’m not even sure what I can do legally to detain them if I did see them again. It’s one thing to man handle or rough up an adult criminal to convince him to sit still for the cops. But even if you hold a kid down and sit on him you might be asking for trouble.
The worst part of all is these kids are probably headed nowhere but downhill. To be pulling this crap at that age doesn’t offer much hope for the future.
Worst of all, talking to the responding officers I learned they have hit about 8 houses in this neighborhood.
