I was a good neighbor - I called the police on the "frat boys" down the street!

[Jean in Newcastle]

Fireworks (other than the official city ones) are banned in our little city this year. The "frat boys" (our neighborhood name for the five young men who share a house that is literally falling down almost across the street from us) chose this year to have an all out 4th of July bash at their house. The drinks started flowing in the late afternoon. They were having a rowdy but fun time playing games. We thought nothing of it. Then the fireworks started - the big "professional" style fireworks with launchers that shot up above our houses raining debris down on our roofs. And the misfired ones that shot down the street barely missing our parked cars. And the sparks that went into our bushes and big fir trees (and our neighbors). And the "something" that banged into the side of my neighbor's house (she was too scared to go out and look). And the drunken cry heard loud and clear "You're on fire, put it out!" Then the phone started ringing off the hook! Neighbors were calling each other to urge all of us to call the police (non-emergency line). So I did my neighborly duty. Both my kids were in tears and I had to move them to the back of the house to calm them down and to get them to sleep. An hour after our call (there were 4 calls from our neighborhood that I know of) the sheriff's deputy finally arrived. The "frat boys" got a warning.:glare: But they did move the party - 30 feet farther down the road! :001_huh:

[battlemaiden]

Fireworks (other than the official city ones) are banned in our little city this year. The "frat boys" (our neighborhood name for the five young men who share a house that is literally falling down almost across the street from us) chose this year to have an all out 4th of July bash at their house. The drinks started flowing in the late afternoon. They were having a rowdy but fun time playing games. We thought nothing of it. Then the fireworks started - the big "professional" style fireworks with launchers that shot up above our houses raining debris down on our roofs. And the misfired ones that shot down the street barely missing our parked cars. And the sparks that went into our bushes and big fir trees (and our neighbors). And the "something" that banged into the side of my neighbor's house (she was too scared to go out and look). And the drunken cry heard loud and clear "You're on fire, put it out!" Then the phone started ringing off the hook! Neighbors were calling each other to urge all of us to call the police (non-emergency line). So I did my neighborly duty. Both my kids were in tears and I had to move them to the back of the house to calm them down and to get them to sleep. An hour after our call (there were 4 calls from our neighborhood that I know of) the sheriff's deputy finally arrived. The "frat boys" got a warning.:glare: But they did move the party - 30 feet farther down the road! :001_huh:

 

Glad you called.

 

Somebody is shooting off the "big" kind of fireworks in the valley behind my home. There aren't any houses back there and they are exploding at my second story window level. My windows are rattling. :glare:

 

I've considered calling, but our local police are...um...slow.

 

Yikes. They're close.

 

I think I better go.

[Kris]

We've had so much rain this year, it was the first time since we moved here that I wasn't nervous about the fireworks. We live out in the middle of nowhere, so people usually do what they want -- warnings or not. There's no point in calling the sheriff -- he's probably out with his family shooting them off himself.

 

I did notice that the people down the road were setting off some "big ones" directly under the power lines that go to their house. Don't know how that turned out, other than the fact that our power's still on, so if they had a problem, hopefully it was just their place.

 

I think it's a good thing you called, and it's just too bad they didn't do more. When they're basically bombing the neighborhood and scaring the kids, they've gone too far.

[elegantlion]

I wonder if said frat boys will stumble around the neighborhood picking up all the debris?

 

If not you could do the neighborly thing and dump it all back onto their lawn. :D Just doing the neighborly thing, right, and returning what it theirs.

[Diana in OR]

This is why 4th of July is my least favorite holiday. (I won't give my annual board rant about it, but I do have a problem with celebrating our Country's freedom by engaging in illegal and dangerous activity.) My neighbors, in between lighting off their big, illeagal fireworks, were setting off homemade "bombs", one of which almost hit my ds as he was lighting off our legal ones. I couldn't have gotten the police here in time, but Thank You for being willing to call.