I must admit that I never got caught doing these things, but there are other things for which… well, let's just say I was not so fortunate. However, these things to which I admit, are sufficient to show that kids do dumb things, some that no one but them will ever know about. That leads me to tell you of a more recent time. A time when Teresa and I were the butt of one of these pranks. Karma? I don't know. Maybe, but if so, it has to be a jumbo payback, enough to cover any and all the nonsensical things I ever did.

For the past year or so, we have been “harassed” by a group of young, all male, neighborhood kids. In fact, we are not the only ones, but never the less, their behaviour has certainly reminded me of some of the things I did when I was young. Our family room happens to be in the front of our house, and most of these incidents happened very late at night, or early in the morning.

We would be sitting in our family room, when suddenly someone would rap on our window about 3 times, very loudly, scaring the begeebers out of us, then we would hear giggling,  and loud footsteps, running away. This would typically happen on weekends, which made me think it was young teens who were the culprits. It happened primarily on weekends and Holidays, when school was in session, and in the summer, when school was  out, it could happen any night, with no particular pattern. What these young men didn't know, or perhaps didn't think would make a difference, was the Ring Doorbell I had installed. I believe they probably knew it was there, because they would turn their heads, or attempt to cover their face each time they rapped. After a while, they decided to ring the door bell, and rap on the front door, an even more brazen challenge that irritated me even further. This would often happen as late as 3AM, and there’s nothing like being startled awake at that hour, by a loud banging.

This led me to begin to inquire about these young men with several neighbors, trying to identify them. Luckily, I was able to get a name. Using our neighborhood directory, Teresa also got the address of one of the teens, the supposed ringleader of the bunch. I know these things can quickly get out of hand if not careful, and although it was beginning to make my wife Teresa and me more irritated, we were careful to not get to the point of physical retaliation; we simply continued to trust that our camera would catch one or more of these young men in a mistake. Our thought was to show the parents the video’s we had captured, after we had much clearer identification.

One evening, when it was still daylight, a young man rapped and ran. Teresa immediately called the home phone number of the supposed ring leader, and low and behold, he answered. We knew his house was near ours, and he could get home quickly. She called him by name, and he reponded, “Who is this?” She said, “I think you know who it is, and we know who you are, and where you live. He hung up, and strangely, the rapping stopped for several weeks, but as summer progressed, it began again, and with several new faces involved. In fact, it seemed these young dudes were getting sloppy, ignoring the need to cover their faces, all to our benefit.

Our neighborhood has a website, and I had noticed several other neighbors reporting this same problem. Teresa was talking with a neighbor across the street, and found she was also quite angry about the problem. With no guidance from us, she posted a message on the neighborhood website, using the name of one of the young men, and mentioning us as a particularly upset duo, and that she had suggested we call the police and give them our ring doorbell evidence. Seems the suspected ring leader had forgotten he was wearing a sweatshirt with his high school name on it, and we got a clear picture of both his face and his sweatshirt, so that our neighbor and us, were certain it was him.

After reading the web posting, the young man's mother called us, quite upset. She said she had called the posting neighbor, but that person wasn't home. She said her son denied any involvement, and asked us to send her any Ring doorbell evidence we had, which we did. Unfortunately, we could not find the sweatshirt picture, but I am pleased to say, although we weren’t sure initially, we indeed were dealing with a very responsible parent. She recognized the two boys from our collected pictures, as friends of her son. I can't report the details of her investigation, only that she changed her tone significantly, telling us her son was definitely involved. Although it hasn't happened yet, she asked if the family could come to our house, presumably to have their son apologize to us, face to face. We look forward to that.

A very interesting thing has happened in the meantime. Two other young men, obviously the rest of “the gang,” appeared at our front door, rang the doorbell, and when they heard the nessage, “We’re sorry, but we can't come to the door right now, but if you would !like to leave a message, please do so at the tone,” they left a very nice apology, plus a box of Russell Stover candy. They also included a very nice card with a written apology, telling us “This will not happen again. Please forgive us,” signed, “All of us.” We got a real kick out of that.

It is obvious the parent of the “Ringleader,” put the hurt on these young men, telling them they should be happy that we had not gotten the police involved. She is a nurse, and knows that someone with Afib, like me, could be put in a desperate situation, perhaps even life threatening, when startled.

That’s my report. I know that most often, kids mean no harm, but that's not to say they can’t do so without thinking. They have constant peer pressure. I remember that from my youth. It seems to be forever so, don't you think? Anyway, I am happy to say this turned out well, no doubt because of the adults involved. That of course includes Teresa and I.

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