Stupid wooden fence and neighborhood kids...

[dbhost]

Just prior to Hurricane Ike in 2008 I had the same thing happen. Pickets from my fence are getting dislodged, well, honestly, kicked out. My security cameras show how it is happeneing...

My house backs up to a creek, and there are kids that walk along the creek to shortcut through the neighborhood....

There are several teenagers that have been coming through, and they will kick 3 or 4 pickets loose, and just saunter through the yards to get where they are going....

After Harvey came through, a couple of the homes for rent along my block got new families complete with teenagers.. And sure enough, my cameras caught two of them kicking my pickets out and trespassing through my yard....

I have approached the parents of these kids with the video with the suggestion of "Make it right, or we can have the PD make it right".

I am considering beefing up the lower sides of my pickets with 2x4s on my side screwed into the post with 3" long screws, such that any toes that go trying to move my pickets out of the way will find something a LOT more solid than a 5/8" thick cedar picket.

I had enough scrap in my shop left over to at least patch what they had left huge holes in so my dog won't get out, but I tell ya. I am getting to be one of those grouchy old men that is getting flat out annoyed at the neighbors kids...

When the heck did I get this old?

[cwsmith]

I sympathize with you. It's one thing to trespass and something else entirely when they destroy property. I hope the parents were positive in their response to you. If that was my kid, not only would there be some punishment, but he would have come to you personally to apologize and pay you from his own savings.... then would either fix it himself under your supervision or offered to work with you.

I've had only a minor problem here in the city, but it's been more in the way of young kids playing in the snow during the winter and almost destroying some hedges But I have seen a few places in other neighborhoods where damage was intentional and looked spiteful. Too many people seem to have lost respect for others in these times. I'm not so sure that parents serve their children well in the way that they raised.

Hopefully your neighbors will handle this as good parents should. Unknowingly, teenagers often cheat themselves of new friends when they act in such a way.


CWS