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Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2005 5:14 pm
Hah. Don't take offense from the title; I am only referring to those teens that live in my area and seem intent on vadalizing everything.
So, I am trying to come up with ways of detering vandalism (we just had a window broken again sweatdrop ). I ordered some stickers for an alarm company (but not the alarm system, hehe, not enough money for that) to put in a few windows. I also have plans to put up Christmas lights for Christmas and leave them on a timer so they go on and off even when people are not around. We have decent bolts on the downstairs windows, and a bar in the bottom of the backdoor.
Any other ideas?
Note: We can't get a dog because our backyard sucks and the landlord says no pets. We also can't plant stinging nettles or other plants around windows because our soil sucks and the plants would die.
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Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2005 6:00 pm
Well, the best deterrent is to be personally aware of when you have people attempting to break into your home. I suggest you do this by buying a rocking chair and shotgun. You can than sit outside your house cradling your shotgun, and glairing at the neighborhood kids. That'll prevent vandalism, for sure. Kinda like this, except with a better chair:
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Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2005 6:01 pm
Sucks about the stinging plants. xd
The alarm stickers should help A LOT. We have those at my house. Haven't been robbed since. :}
Uhm, if anything else happens you could.... you know... call the police maybe? They should help... Good luck heart
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Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2005 6:46 pm
xLaurelX Sucks about the stinging plants. xd
The alarm stickers should help A LOT. We have those at my house. Haven't been robbed since. :}
Uhm, if anything else happens you could.... you know... call the police maybe? They should help... Good luck heart We have reported things to the police. They are actually pretty friendly, and have tried to help, but there is only so much they can do with no real evidence and no witnesses. But they do patrol our neighborhood fairly frequently, just to make sure things are in order. And to the shotgun idea: Definitely effective, but probably frowned upon. But I got a laugh out of it.
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Posted: Thu Nov 17, 2005 11:58 am
Invest in some cheap motion-activated lights?
I think you can buy them at places like Home Depot, Lowes, or even Wal-Mart. And maybe using those in combination with the stickers would deter the idiots well enough.
If not, then make a picture of a scarey person/monster/thing and stick it in every window in your house facing toward the outside, then sit behind it making scarey noises. xd
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Posted: Thu Nov 17, 2005 1:43 pm
Have you thought about contacting the teens parents? Or setting up a neighbourhood watch?
I must say the sticker idea was a really good one.
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Posted: Thu Nov 17, 2005 2:21 pm
Motion activated lights are the best option, as are getting alarm stickers. In fact, you can buy plastic (realistic looking) security cameras. You won't have problems after that. It sucks that you're having those problems, but it's just an isolated event. I had my mailbox blown up twice, but there's not much you can do about the stupidity of others.
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Posted: Thu Nov 17, 2005 3:36 pm
I just read in the paper about a town that was plagued by teen vandalism. They came up with a rather novil solution that seems to be working rather well. They started an order of Knighhood for the town. Kinda like scout and kinda like the SCA they appointed all the teens into it and would have round table meetings to discuss things like honor, virtue, the nobility of doing the right thing, with rewards and ranks for being good knights. Now they have a large cadre of teens who don't toleate holiganism and are very active themselves in keeping it in check. It gave them a chance in a real life environment to see the value of these priciples and see the rewards that come with them. In addition they feel included in keeping thier town a cool place to live in.
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Posted: Thu Nov 17, 2005 7:09 pm
[CherryBlossom] Have you thought about contacting the teens parents? Or setting up a neighbourhood watch? I must say the sticker idea was a really good one. We don't know the exact people responsible, there is only a general idea. There is a neighborhood watch already. I like the motion sensor light idea someone had though. I shall definitely check the hardware store. To Soleq: It isn't completely isolated. Our house has been robbed once and vandalized 2x. But technically we aren't the only house in the area with problems. Sorry about the mailbox, that sucks. Luckily we have one of those mailboxes where about 10 houses share one big box with separate slots, so that seems unlikely to happen.
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Posted: Thu Nov 17, 2005 7:28 pm
I'd say to report the vandalism and they'll be on the lookout. Once the police start getting a lot of complaints they'll do something about it, or be more inclined to find out who is doing it. Other than that, tell people around you to be on the look out for teenagers doing stuff like that. Stay on the lookout yourself. If they come, turn on your sprinklers or something. Or hose them down.
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Posted: Thu Nov 17, 2005 8:10 pm
ButterBalls I'd say to report the vandalism and they'll be on the lookout. Once the police start getting a lot of complaints they'll do something about it, or be more inclined to find out who is doing it. Other than that, tell people around you to be on the look out for teenagers doing stuff like that. Stay on the lookout yourself. If they come, turn on your sprinklers or something. Or hose them down. Heh, I'd personally rather chase them out and beat the s**t out of them. My ren faire swords are real enough... Or I could just settle for tying them up and calling the police. But yeah, we have been watching out. The problem is that we all go to school (I live with 5 other roomates), and we are always gone at different (and pretty random times).
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Posted: Fri Nov 18, 2005 3:47 am
hmmm....I suppose it depends on the teens involved but being confrontational could escalate and alot more than mailboxs and window could get damaged. Is there nothing in your locale to occupy these guys. I my home town to curb holiganizim on the weekends our local RCMP would hold a back country rally on saturdays (Scavanger hunt style not racing) and then the had a special deal on friday's for 1/2 off at the roller rink. Saved them alot of trouble and we appreciated the cops eek , these pratices stoped with a new police chief and now mishcief is a problem and the town now has actual street gangs. The oldest addage sounds true for this sort of problem "Idle hands are the Devil's play ground", Talk to community members, city hall, inform them of your problem and connect it to idleness of the teens and get your community in gear to come up with ideas (they want your votes after all don't they) to occupy these youth. Otherwise that pic of the guy on his porch will be an inevitability.
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Posted: Fri Nov 18, 2005 7:44 pm
Soleq I had my mailbox blown up twice, Coincidence?
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Posted: Sat Nov 19, 2005 9:31 pm
Another idea that wouldn't hurt....
You said there is a neighborhood watch for your area? Well, see if you can't work in conjunction with them and possibly persuade them to go house-to-house (or you can do this yourself) and hand out a simple flyer detailing recent vandalisms in the area. It'd not only be a simple way to alert possibly ignorant neighbors, but also, if the vandals live within the neighborhood, their parents may get one of your flyers. The vandals would then see it and know at least that someone is taking some action against their malicious behavior. Maybe just knowing someone is being pro-active would scare them out of vandalizing.
Also, if you're not getting much help from the cops/other neighbors, then perhaps contacting your local councilman or the mayor wouldn't hurt. I know my Grandpa (the spunky old guy he is) will ring the mayor's phone off the hook until something gets done about whatever problem is going on. It's annoying and tedious, but sometimes persistance pays off.
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Posted: Mon Dec 19, 2005 1:37 pm
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