Punks painted my light post

[sixpack70]

my wife told me today someone spray painted a light post we have in our yard. Now mind you its not a high dollar item (only around 30 bucks) the problem is if they will paint that, might they get one of my vehicles next? My wife spotted a group of thugs sitting next to the wall of our yard one day while coming home. They were messing around and when she came home the loser gang left. Here is the area I'm talking about. The light wasn't put in yet.


As you can see its a rock wall about 8+ feet high with Palm trees on the side. The neighbors park their trucks there and occasionaly get their trucks messed with. ( the lightning doesn't stay there like in the picture, but the white truck behind does!) There are no lights there at all. The next project for the house is security lights. I guess people in El paso don't care about lights too much because most houses at night are dark with even darker yards. I leave my porch lights on all night just to detur stupidty. This rates right up there with the fence jumpers who used to jump over to look at the charger when it was parked on the side. Glad its in an enclosed garage now! Why can't people just leave your stuff alone and go screw their own stuff up?

[greenpigs]

Why can't people just leave your stuff alone and go screw their own stuff up?

Because they don't have anything near as nice as what you do, BTW I like the landscaping on your yard.

[terrible one]

Plan a stakeout with a paintball gun. That'll teach 'em 

[4402tuff4u]

Jumping the fence??   Get a nice K9 with a nice bright white smile for the welcoming comittee. Once they make it over the fence to your yard it's going to be a rude awakening experience for them. Makesure you put up signs "beware of dogs", this way they can't sue you. They will think twice next time.

[MyMopar]

Plan a stakeout with a paintball gun. That'll teach 'em 

That would be a good idea except for the fact that they WILL retalliate because of it.  Your best bet is not to piss off the punks but find a way to deter them from screwing around in your area at least.  No home owners wants to or really should have to pay for extra secuirty but we do. Motion sensing lights, lights that just click on with timers that can do random timing, and some watchful eyes will help keep your stuff a bit safer. 
Secuirty systems are getting cheaper and more advanced.  I don't know how techy you are but a system from X10 is pretty cheap, you can hook up to record video to a VCR or spare home computer.  If goign through the computer, you can even remote monitor things when your not home.  No cables are needed for some of their systems as they are wireless and have battery packs.  SOme skillful planning and research and you could have a nice security system and be able to ID any thieves or trouble makers.
http://www.x10.com/minisites/security_camera/security_cameras_directory.html
http://www.x10.com/cameras/cameras_wireless.html
http://www.x10.com/cameras/vt38a_s_k_ps19.htmlFlood light and motion cam in one


Whatever you do, goodluck.

[Orange_Crush]

Man, I know that's annoying as hell.  There is really not much you can do about it.  Their parents probably wouldn't give a damn if you told 'em about it.

If you retaliate (paintball gun) then they'll just make it even worse on you...it may be your nice wall next.

If you get a dog and they get bitten, you'll most likely get sued.

This worked for a lady I knew.  She had some yard sculptures (REALLY nice expensive ones, not the tacky ones) smashed.  She got her sprinkler system wired up to a  switched motion sensor (and in El Paso, with a lawn like that, I KNOW you have a sprinkler system) and she never had a problem again...though it did backfire once when she went outside to get her paper on a freezing morning without switching the motion sensor off.

Any competent electrician could wire that type of thing up for you.

[Drop Top]

Try some paint thinner and a rag to remove the paint from the light post.

I had a problem with tweakers coming around at night. I have a fence, a large dog, lights that come on as you walk by and a 12 gauge. (I live on 150 acers.) The dog went off barking. I grabbed my shot gun and went out side. I aimed over their heads and peppered them with bird shot.That stopped them for awhile. Then a few months later my wife heard a car drive up late at night. The dog went off again. I grabbed the gun and the car started to take off right past me. I shot the rear 1/4 panel in the trunk area. Then unloaded the shotgun over the car as it went away. Just so it would rain down on it. I saw the car at the local drive-in a few days later. Then I told the punks driving it. Next time I'll aim for inside the car. I haven't had a problem sense. But I'm very well respected in are little comunity and we all pretty much have a shotgun by the door. The thing is to not hurt anyone just there property and scare the shit out of them. (I'm also known as being a little crazy with the local riff Raff.) Then they respect you and leave you alone. There is about 4 of us old timers around and we have been known to take the law into are own hands. Very discretely of coarse, if you know what I mean. There only so much the local police can do. Thee tugs are just that and if they call the cops on you. More then likely theres a warrant out on them anyway and they will be hauled off. Then they will have to explane what they where doing in your area also. These guys aren't as smart as they think.

[PocketThunder]

Try some paint thinner and a rag to remove the paint from the light post.

I had a problem with tweakers coming around at night. I have a fence, a large dog, lights that come on as you walk by and a 12 gauge. (I live on 150 acers.) The dog went off barking. I grabbed my shot gun and went out side. I aimed over their heads and peppered them with bird shot.That stopped them for awhile. Then a few months later my wife heard a car drive up late at night. The dog went off again. I grabbed the gun and the car started to take off right past me. I shot the rear 1/4 panel in the trunk area. Then unloaded the shotgun over the car as it went away. Just so it would rain down on it. I saw the car at the local drive-in a few days later. Then I told the punks driving it. Next time I'll aim for inside the car. I haven't had a problem sense. But I'm very well respected in are little comunity and we all pretty much have a shotgun by the door. The thing is to not hurt anyone just there property and scare the shit out of them. (I'm also known as being a little crazy with the local riff Raff.) Then they respect you and leave you alone. There is about 4 of us old timers around and we have been known to take the law into are own hands. Very discretely of coarse, if you know what I mean. There only so much the local police can do. Thee tugs are just that and if they call the cops on you. More then likely theres a warrant out on them anyway and they will be hauled off. Then they will have to explane what they where doing in your area also. These guys aren't as smart as they think.

Holy Crap!!!

[Telvis]

Mortar small pieces of broken glass or sharp pieces of rock on top of the wall. They won't want to sit on top of it anymore.

[BigBlockSam]

i had  kids jumping my fence all the time. thats what happens when you live in the jungle (inner city). i installed motion detectors that turns on lights, scares the crap out of them when the lights go on. i also installed 6 cameras plus a driveway dog. what that does is when somebody walks into my driveway it barks inside the house, it's pretty funny. i got everything from ebay pretty cheap. i use to just let the dog loose in the yard. now she's so old she can barely bark. Rene

[Old Moparz]

Try some paint thinner and a rag to remove the paint from the light post.

I had a problem with tweakers coming around at night. I have a fence, a large dog, lights that come on as you walk by and a 12 gauge. (I live on 150 acers.) The dog went off barking. I grabbed my shot gun and went out side. I aimed over their heads and peppered them with bird shot.That stopped them for awhile. Then a few months later my wife heard a car drive up late at night. The dog went off again. I grabbed the gun and the car started to take off right past me. I shot the rear 1/4 panel in the trunk area. Then unloaded the shotgun over the car as it went away. Just so it would rain down on it. I saw the car at the local drive-in a few days later. Then I told the punks driving it. Next time I'll aim for inside the car. I haven't had a problem sense. But I'm very well respected in are little comunity and we all pretty much have a shotgun by the door. The thing is to not hurt anyone just there property and scare the shit out of them. (I'm also known as being a little crazy with the local riff Raff.) Then they respect you and leave you alone. There is about 4 of us old timers around and we have been known to take the law into are own hands. Very discretely of coarse, if you know what I mean. There only so much the local police can do. Thee tugs are just that and if they call the cops on you. More then likely theres a warrant out on them anyway and they will be hauled off. Then they will have to explane what they where doing in your area also. These guys aren't as smart as they think.

Holy Crap!!!

You got that right, but I like it. 

[mally69]

well since im a hellyun myself  the really bad thing is that they have a lot of free time to set back and skeam things up and when they strike they usually get u good ive done things before probably much worse though the only differnece is i can afford to get caught most kids now days can't

once i realized that the time and money was better spent on my charger i GAVEUP the hell raisn

[BigBlackDodge]

Mortar small pieces of broken glass or sharp pieces of rock on top of the wall. They won't want to sit on top of it anymore.

When I was a kid we lived in the Phillippines for a few years and all the fences/walls around the houses had that done to them. Pretty cool I thought.

BBD

[sixpack70]

Oh yeah I've seen people jump fences in the Philippines, pretty funny when the idiot gets caught, or they get down to see how bloody they really are. I love the upside down coke bottle crown of death. If I did that kind of stuff here, I'd get sued. So I will put the motion lights on the house there. I've also thought of a large lamp post that could shine light down on the sidewalk there at night. It would allow the people who want to walk at night some light and make it a crappy hang out for punk idiots. I do have a dog but everyone knows he is harmless and loves everyone. Kids come and pet him all of the time. I wouldn't mind having a couple cameras around the house to see what El paso miscreants do when I am not home.

[mally69]

good idea about the light and cameras but just think if they find that camera ITS GONE    as for the light if they dont like it more than likely one of them ownes a slingshot   

[Arthu®]

Why can't people just leave your stuff alone and go screw their own stuff up?

Because they don't have anything near as nice as what you do, BTW I like the landscaping on your yard.

That is exactly what the entire problem is. We have the very same problem here in the Netherlands with Morrocan immigrants. Who think they have no chance in society, blablabla. Doesn't really matter. But it is all about messing with stuff and near stuff of people that they think are better than them. Their parents have absolutely either no influence on them or they really don't care.

Well besides the scare tactics that might just draw more attention and really get them to focus on you as it becommes a sport for them. There really isn't that much you can do, you could inform your local police department about the groups and they might patrol more often. But I doubt that would really help. We have had several problems over the past half year with these kind of people and really all I can do about it is laugh and think how pathetic they are and that they will never ever get somewhere in their life. And try to rip off the insurance companies trying to at least make a buck out of it.

Arthur

[Drop Top]

When I was a kid, my Dad used to take us to Mexico for Easter Vaction. I saw the glass on top of the wall all the time. It works very well. But in the States its not leagle and its something the athorities can see. So you can get in major trouble for it. You can have razor wire or barbed wire on top of yor fence. The problem there is. You have to have a perment for it and it says to the tugs that you have someting behind the fence to protect and makes them try harder to get inside. If you want to be practical then the lights and camra would be the way to go. As long as they don't steal them too. The best way is to find out how to intemadate them more then they intemadate you. You can always play dumb to the police. Works for me. But then I get along very well with the local Sherffs and CHP. It helps that I work on their personal cars for free.

[BigBlockSam]

hey mally69
these camera's are so little and in out door cases. if you get close enough to hit it they won't break and smile your on tape. they sprayed  a bad word on my friends house and one of my camers's caught them. as soon as i showed it to the cops, they knew who the punks were and there parents had to pay for the clean up  Rene

[MyMopar]

I wouldn't think he would moun the cameras (if he went that route) low enoguh where someone can reach up and grab it, plus if they can get the camera, then they are already too close for comfort.
One more thought might be to talk to the local town board and request a light installed.  One of my old ex-neighbors had a problem and made the town install a street light, which they did.  It is all about how you present the case, if you have any evidence of problems and so on.  Also adding that it will help the neighbor hood and make people feel safer walking at night couldn't hurt.  Get as many people as you can from your area on board with the idea.  One voice is easy to ignor but a group would merrit some attention.
That or send them the bill for the motion sensors.  Claim they are negligent on their part for maintaining the town safety and you HAD NO CHOICE but to buy these items.  Some people have luck with these schemes (so I heard) but I haven't meet anyone personally.
Good luck with what you do and your stuff.  Looks like a nice neighborhood.  Har dto believe you have trouble there. 

[mally69]

bigblocksam   

heck yea , mostlikley the only way theyd find it is if they knew it was there so being that small would definatley work 

just in case i need one of those little cameras were did you get yours from 
got a  ish plan for one haha

[BigBlockSam]

i got them off ebay they got tons of differant ones. i cheaped out . next time i'll spend some more money and get kick ass color ones

[adauto]

We also had motion lights, 100lb German Shepards, just about any firearm you can name. But one of the most fun deterentd we ever had was broken windshield glass mixed in axle grease! It only stays moist for a few days in the summer/or lots of direct sunlight but man they put thier hands up o it get a hand full of grease and try to wpie it off HA-HA!

Also nwere we are putting up a beware of dog sign signifies to your ins co. that yu have a "problem" dog.   
No signs here but ..

Beware of OWNER!

[Arigmaster]

Before we bought our new place in late 2004, I lived in one side of one of our townhouses. (owner occupied) and saw some changes in our neighborhood that made me pretty uncomfortable. There were less and less owner occupied places in the neighborhood and more owners selling their places off to less than stellar landlords. The end result was some pretty seedy people moving in and some of the kids were pretty rotten too.

Well, I had to live there so what I did was got to know each one of the little punks by their first name. Even if they didnt know me, I found out their names from other kids in the area. I would say hello to them occasionally and call them by their first names when they walked by the house.

I think this scared the crap out of them and some even asked me how I knew their names. I would just smile and tell them I know alot about everyone around here... Who they are, where they live, what their parents do for a living. (even though I didn't) You wouldn't believe the looks on their faces when I told them that. Cars were broken into or vandalized all around the neighborhood but not a single item on my property was ever messed with and nor my neighbors places within view of my place.

[Dodge-Charger]

I had a problem with kids here one time. I put my cameras on ( they only record when someone walks in front of them ) and caught them on tape. Then I sent the parents a copy with a note sayin " this is a warning and my proof, the next time I WILL let the dogs out " I kept a copy of the note and gave it to the cops. They told me it could be used as a thret to the kids. So I sent a second note and it read " IF I catch your kids in my yard again I WILL let the dogs loose". So far its been about 2 years and no kids have come close to the house. Here in NC when the word IF is used , then you are givein a alltematem wich is your choice to try and push. Being I gave them a second chance and a choice they could not come back on me.

My camera system can rotate 200 and some de up and down with sound. I have motion lights with built in cameras and a automatic recording system. You can not come into my yard at all with out being seen or herd. I have lights in the house that light up when someone gets to close to the house , cars or shop. I can also veiw my house when Im out of town from any internet connection in the world. It comes in handy when Im on the road. I sell these systems so oh yes I hooked myself up.