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Suggestions to counter rock throwers?
From a neighbor near Oakwood:
We’ve had issues since March with the neighbor kids (we think they’re kids, we’ve never seen the culprits) throwing rocks at our house. In May they finally hit the jackpot and broke the glass on one of our French doors. After filing a police report and having to pay to replace the glass in the door, we were pretty glad that the rock-pelting stopped (we assumed that they got scared by the fact they actually accomplished something)…. until we discovered more rocks on our back deck last week and a broken window upstairs. Needless to say, we’re ticked.
We are aware that our house sat abandoned for many years before we moved in. The assumption last summer was that it had been a neighborhood sport to chuck rocks at the old abandoned house, and the “kids” thought the house was still unoccupied. After the French-door incident, we made sure to leave our porch light on and put up “No Trespassing” signs that make it pretty clear people live here. After all this and the broken window, it’s apparent that the sport is still fun, even if (especially if?) the house is occupied.
We’re ready to call our security company and invest in a camera, but I was curious from other residents if that has been found to help deter issues like these.
Has anyone else had issues like this?
Any suggestions? Thanks, neighbors…
Get the camera!!
We have security cameras to cover most of the outside of our home AND a ring doorbell to answer the door from our phones. Highly recommend it. Brings peace of mind esp if hubby isnt home.
Pellet/airsoft/paintball guns work pretty well. If I had to guess based on what I’ve seen in the past, it’s kids who should be in school and aren’t.
missionary friends tell me it’s fairly common practice in Ghana for folks to rig up a motion sensor that triggers speakers playing the sounds of angry/scary dogs barking,rather than having an alarm or security lights. Or you could go all out and get a scary yard dog, though I don’t think that’s a great reason to get a pet.
How to counter? It is called a GUN.
Yeah… you shoot a child for throwing a rock at your home. Let me know how that goes for you
We have a Dropcam on our yard. Don’t know that it has prevented a crime but certainly cleared up a few mysteries.
Eric, in my opinion you say a lot of ignorant things on CHPN, but suggesting a neighbor solve this problem with a gun is a new level of simple-mindedness. Your facebook page claims you’re a reverend and an ordained minister, but you certainly don’t appear to be about that life. Promoting gun-violence in our community is far worse than kids throwing rocks through windows. Shame on you.
If advocating a using a gun to counter children throwing rocks doesn’t get moderated out, what does? I’m confused and disheartened on many levels.
@Emily Em – I moderate as little as possible. People are gonna say stupid shit.
What makes you think the rock throwers are children, unless you consider teenagers children? Get the camera, but be warned that even that won’t be a deterrent. Welcome to the ‘hood.
@Eric
Sorry, but countering rock throwing with a gun is called manslaughter or murder.
Great advice reverend!
http://www.wave3.com/story/15333296/man-sentenced-for-killing-a-teen-in-rock-throwing-incident
A few years back I caught a group of kids throwing rocks at an empty house near mine. I stopped them, and told them the neighborhood is like their extended home, and they need to protect it, not destroy it. Most of that concept probably went in one ear and out the other, but they stopped throwing rocks at that particular house.
Catching the kids in the act is likely the best way to mitigate the behavior.
@11 Trish- like I said, we’re just making an assumption that they’re kids. And I taught high school for many years, so yes, I consider teenagers kids 🙂
@13 Spacecat- we are definitely hoping to catch them so we can chat with them and develop a relationship with them. We’ve had several other issues like this that have been easily solved by a new friendship. Unfortunately, we have yet to set eyes on these elusive aspiring baseball players 🙂
1. Cameras: You want to identify the miscreants so the police can crack down on it. You can’t have enough cameras around here.
2. Gun: Shooting the kids for rock throwing is a dumb idea, obviously. If a window breaks it could make your house more of a target for a burglar until it being repaired. Having a gun for self-defense against an armed intruder may make sense if you are willing to properly secure the firearm when it is not on your person or under your direct control and are willing to invest in training.
3. Alarm: You know the windows they are going at. Put a glass break sensor(s) on those windows connected to your alarm system–and you almost have to have a monitored alarm system to live in Church Hill safely. They set off the alarm once they won’t do it twice I suspect. Plus it will cause the police to come. Problem likely solved.
@15 BAF – we do have glass break sensors on all our windows but both times they have only broken the outside pane and the sensor is looking for the interior one to be broken.
You may want to up your sensitivity on the sensor if it isn’t at the highest level. It might pick up the break.
My advice is do what is best for you. I been in the east end for 36 year’s. Yes I know that theirs new people in the east end, but from my experience, playing Mr or Mrs nice guy doesn’t always work.just do what’s best for you.
We’ve found that we have way fewer problems after we made it clear that we would see to it that people breaking the law around our home would be arrested. Unfortunately, the only way we found to do that was to have people breaking the law arrested. Cameras definitely helped. The police are swamped, and need people to provide them with something to go on or they won’t be able to prioritize something like property damage, or drug dealing.
Being vigilant and, also unfortunately, not giving people the benefit of the doubt has also helped us.
And lastly, I’ve learned the hard way in other neighborhoods: leave no rocks in throwing distance of your windows, if you can help it. Most people won’t carry rocks for the purpose of breaking you glass…
I don’t use stones in any street-accessible landscaping any more either.
Cut off their arms.
My comment was meant to be sarcastic and funny. People are WAY too sensitive here.
Yes, I am an Ordained Minister but if you look, it is with the Universal Life Church. We accept all religions and belief systems, including agnostics and wiccans. It is an all encompassing, non discriminating church.
@19 Dubois2- I thought about that, the rocks in proximity to the house…. but unfortunately, we live on a gravel covered alley that is replete with rocks, and there’s no way we’d be able to get rid of an entire alley-full of rocks.
Looks like we’ll be investing in that camera…..
I actually like Zachary…that pellet in the rear would be a warning.
Uhmmm, would metal mesh window screens have any protective value? I’m sure they wouldn’t stop a brick, but if it’s gravel/small rocks maybe they would help?
Eric,
The issue here isn’t sensitivity. It’s your lack of respect and the carelessness with which you suggest the use of gun violence. It’s not even remotely funny and I question whether that was the intention based on previous posts of yours.
Let’s say you reached out to the community for advice about a family member suffering from a serious illness. What would you feel if your neighbor suggested “how to counter? it’s called ASSISTED SUICIDE”. Would you find that funny? or is it just counterproductive, offensive and tactless?
There are a lot of people in our community who’ve lost loved ones to gun violence. The fact that you think it’s a joke makes you look like an out-of-touch asshole. You’re talking about using guns to deter youth from making dumb decisions.
I respect this forum too much to go as hard at you as I really want to.
@24 Lee… that’s genius. We are missing screens in some of our windows (including this recent casualty) and we were planning on replacing our windows in the next few years but were hesitant to put in something new that was just going to get broken immediately. But I guess when we do we can look into screens that will go from top to bottom to help protect. Since we can’t get one for our French doors, we’ll probably get a camera too. Thanks!
@Emily Em and @John M: One great thing about free speech: it’s how you know who the assholes are. 🙂
A) put up metal mesh to protect them
B) next time it happens, fire a few rounds from out your window. Don’t hit them, that’ll get you in trouble. If anyone asks, say it was them shooting at your house. Double win – increased police patrols in the area + they will probably screw off after getting shot at.
@Natedrizzle
So just blind fire out your window? No one ever gets shot that way . Besides when you fire bullets in the air they magically float into space right ?
Pave your alley.
The city won’t notice.
And put a real or dummy camera- or two – on that end of the property. On the fence, in a tree, back of shed or garage if youve got one