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I am officially the mean neighborhood lady
On Friday my husband and I smelled something burning, well he looked outside and saw a couple of boys (about 11-12yrs. old) lighting stuff-paper mostly- on fire across from our house (we have a preserve area full of trees, brush, pine trees). So I decided I would go and tell them to stop so I went and told them basically to quit lighting stuff on fire and that we could see them doing it. So they took off, well Sat. they were back over there again and they saw me looking out my window at them and took off. Hopefully they know that we are keeping an eye out now and will go somewhere else but I would hate for them to catch that area or any area in the neighborhood on fire, esp. with the dry season, it would take a little spark to set that area up in flames.
Would you tell their parents? Call the cops? Do nothing unles they come back again? My husband is a firefighter so of course he is extra sensitive and he is ready to tell their parents. Anyway I have already made enemies w/ the neighborhood kids! Oops!
Re: I am officially the mean neighborhood lady
I would call the police immediatly, before someone's house burns down or even worse, a firefighter gets killed in the line of duty putting out a fire some young punk kid started. I am also a firefighter and know the consequences to their actions. If your husband is a firefighter, I am surprised he hasn't handled it yet!!! If they start a fire, they can face criminal charges, and their parents will be stuck with the expense of what it costs to put out the fire, not to mention any other damages god forbid somebodies home(even yours) burns down! Of course if anybody gets hurt or killed because of the fire, that is a whole other story.
I would tell the parents. Let me tell ya a little story where I wished I would have told the parents about their dd sneeking around.
I live on the corner of a culdasac so I can see all the traffic coming in and out of our neighborhood. Well last summer I noticed a car stop short of our culdasac and my neighbors dd got out of the car. It was about 7 am and the car she got out of I knew was her boyfriends car because, I had seen it at their house a lot and the mom had complained to me about him as well. I went back and forth and was not sure if I should tell her or not.
A few months passed and I ran into her mom outside and we were talking. I asked if her dd was still seeing that guy and she told me no thank god!! So I told her what I had seen and she told me that was right after we made her put a restraining order on him because he had raped her!! Oviously the dd either made up the story of that or she just did not care that he had done that to her. I wish I would have spoke up and said something though. I would speak up if I were you. Think if you were a mom would you want to know if your child was doing something like that. More than likely you would.
Good post from MrsDMC and I agree with her.
If you see it one more time, I would call the police immediately. I would be afraid to show my face to parents because it seems teens this day and age retaliate on property after they are "Tattled on" I have seen it happen 2x in my neighborhood. Maybe with the call to police, the kids wont know you called. With arson issues I would leave it up to the police and parents. A policemen cathing them playing around and walking them to their parents' door may be enough to scare some sense into them.
It amazes me all the wildfire arson going on in recent years. When I was little, kids I grew up around were never bored enough to go play with matches and light forests on fire.