+1 for trail cam...and a recommendation on a trail cam. I need to buy a couple too. Walmart had some nice looking battery-powered ones for ~$100 but I had no idea what to look for.
I doubt admissibility in court matters much; more the tag numbers and description for the officer you spoke with. What are the chances they *don’t* have beer/weed in the car?
I hate to see anyone get in trouble with the law, but these kids are kinda begging for it.
A friend of mine recommended a PoE security camera. Power over Ethernet. Then have it dump to a DVR or a hard drive in the house.
That said, for trail cams, this one seems pretty dope:
https://www.trailcampro.com/collections/shop-trail-cameras/products/browning-spec-ops-advantage
Just remember to remove the 2x4 with nails when the cops do their black out or it might get weird...
Ian F
MegaDork
9/17/18 9:49 a.m.
...or they could be setting off M80's around the fire pit in the yard behind you...
Why the berk they legalized fireworks in PA I'll never understand...
KyAllroad (Jeremy) said:
Spike strips.
I was going to suggest this
As satisfying as spike strips would be, I then have a very pissed off punk stranded on my property. I kind of DON'T want them here, that's the whole point. Plus then I'm inviting retaliation. Which I really don't want.
A drone with a 30 min video capacity would serve you as well here as a game cam. As soon as you hear or see them, send it flying over to that intersection, get footage of the infractions, and minimize all contact with those pesky millenials. Plus who knows, your daughter might really enjoying learning to control it.
Storz
SuperDork
9/17/18 12:05 p.m.
volvoclearinghouse said:
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ said:
You need to assert dominance with bigger, gnarlier burnouts. It's the only reasonable way to handle this situation.
I _do_ have a 460 big block Ford powered LeMons car...
Remove the mufflers and go scare the S out of them. My BBF 460 powered boat sounded like the world ending with open headers
Is there ever an S13 or S14 sitting at that house? I have a hunch that's what we're dealing with here.
In reply to Daylan C :
The house where the 4 kids live? No- none of those kids are driving age. My point of the map was to show that idiots are doing burnouts across the street from where small children live.
In reply to volvoclearinghouse :
Ok misread definition of "kid" here. My mistake.
there is always a chance of stray bullets, from who knows where, hitting tires out in rural areas... just saying...
JK dont do that
I would say let the cops handle it, we were alerted of a random car that would park in front of our house every morning at right about 5 am and would leave 10-15 minutes later. We also live in a rural area so it's not like parking in front of someones house on a regular neighborhood street. Called the cops the first morning we saw him ourselves, cops didnt make it until after he left. The next day the cops parked down the road blacked out just before the normal time the guy showed up, they had a good talking with him about how you dont park outside of someones house in the dark every morning for a week.
Long story short, if they are doing it around a somewhat consistent time then call the police and tell them it's always around X time every night and ask them to stake it out. Call enough times and i'm sure they will do it, small town/rural cops dont usually have too much going on.
The problem is one day this is going to happen.
All that intersection real estate and they're only doing burnouts? Show up with that 460 running open headers and proceed to rip gnarly donuts to show them who's really king of the hood
jharry3 said:
The problem is one day this is going to happen.
and that's not even a very big tree.
If you talk to a few neighbors and (if any of them care...it surprises me sometimes that people don't) start a community campaign of confronting and/or reporting this behavior, I think it's the best shot of making it go away (note, I didn't say stop...they'll just bother someone else). If you and/or the law hassle them enough, they'll just go somewhere else.
Things would NOT have gone well here at my house if they'd tried the intimidation thing. I can't honestly say how they would have gone bad, but I would have lost my E36 M3. So...probably not well for me either.
I've had to talk to the dumbass kid neighbors multiple times about gun safety. I've told them I won't come talk to them politely again before calling the Sheriff.
What I didn't mention was that the call to the Sheriff would go something like, "The neighbors (that I've talked to you before about) are being careless with their guns again...shooting in our direction. I'm armed and I'm going to talk to them." I imagine that will get a swift response from the Sheriff's deparment. (I probably won't really do that. I'm not a fan of being shot or getting into legal trouble.)
With the exception of yelling at the kid (which only identified you as a target for future shenanigans), I think you have handled this well so far. I would be sure to relay to the sheriff that you feel threatened by their behavior in front of your house, and that you have a wife and kid that you will defend by whatever means necessary. These young punks are not likely to escalate beyond roadside intimidation, but one never knows what they will actually do. Best to let the cops handle it, but that should not take long since they have been doing this in your neighborhood with regularity.
I would consider getting security cameras for your house, and if remote deiveway sensors are in the budget those can help too, especially if remote cameras are not in the budget.
Hope all ends well.
I don't live in a rural area but I can find an empty road easily within 2-3 miles of my house that I could, if I wanted to, do a burn out on. And the nearest house would be a 1/2 mile away. These kids need to do the same thing. Anyone who defends them doing it where they did are wrong! And after you confronted the one kid and he went out and brought a couple of his friends to do multiple burn outs in front of your house is way out of line. That's intimidation and that has to be stopped right now.
One of the guys that works for me moved into a new neighborhood a while back, and there are a couple of young guys with fartcan cars that sit in the middle of the street revving them. I totally understand them doing it, because I used to be an even bigger idiot than I am now. Anyway, it was right around bedtime when they were brapping down the street, and he went out and gave them a stern grownup look. They then brapped around the neighborhood for quite a while after that.
I suggested that he stand on the front step, and when they brapped he could laugh, give a dissmissive wave, and turn back into the house. I figure that would do as much good as anything.
jharry3 said:
The problem is one day this is going to happen.
One can only imagine the speed of that tree as it struck the Mustang broadside.
84FSP
SuperDork
9/17/18 5:07 p.m.
I both understand your frustration and the idipcy of my youth. I thanfully had some older guys (queue the summer jobs at the filling station ) that kept me honeat and taught me the accepatable ways of the juvenile jedi. Carry on - be the adult - track kiddos back to parent and talk accordingly.
Yeah, the spike strip would only be a last resort item.
I’d vote for staking out the spot yourself and having a more mature conversation with the young lad about how there are children and families in the area who don’t appreciate his display of awesomeness as much as you do. Teach him about autocross, drifting, crap can racing, etc. This is a teaching moment, only if he blows you off would I send it to the police.
You hit the nail on the head with the “honey vs vinegar” advice.
Good luck man.
84FSP
SuperDork
9/17/18 6:42 p.m.
Side note - expanding construction foam does NOT do a fantastic job of resolving fart can issues...