Should I Call the Police on Neighborhood Kids Harassing My Family?

Are you wondering if you would be considered the jerk for involving the authorities in a situation involving neighborhood kids and their parents? Picture this: a 23-year-old dealing with relentless harassment from two boys aged 9 to 11, a scenario that has been ongoing for a couple of years.

The kids have escalated their behavior from minor annoyances like throwing garbage in the yard to more serious actions like physically assaulting the door and even making menacing threats. Things took a disturbing turn when the boys started leaving unwanted items and messages, and even went as far as whispering ominous statements at windows late at night.

The original poster is torn between giving the parents another chance to intervene and resorting to calling the police to put an end to the harassment once and for all. The Reddit community has shared varied opinions, with some advocating for immediate police involvement due to the severity of the situation.

Suggestions range from setting up cameras to document the behavior, contacting Child Protective Services, to taking legal action against the parents for their children's actions. The consensus seems to lean towards prioritizing the safety and well-being of the harassed family by seeking appropriate intervention.

Original Post

I (23F) and my family (mom and sisters) have been being harassed and overall being targeted by two boys in the neighborhood (approx. 9-11 yrs) for the past couple years.

It began after my younger sister (13F) stopped talking to one of the boys on their walk to school and at school. We assumed that he and his friend would stop after a couple weeks but it’s been over two years at this point.

It’s just been annoying most of the time, throwing garbage in our yard, running through the yard to scare our cats sitting in the windows, blasting music towards our house, etc.. Last year, the two boys began running up to our door and body slamming and kicking the door once a day for two weeks.

We asked them politely to stop as it could damage the door/door frame and said that if they did it again we would talk to their parents. They stopped messing with us altogether for a couple months after that then the usual shenanigans resumed minus the kicking/body slamming the door.

However within the last couple months (starting when school ended for the summer), the kids have begun throwing milk cartons from the local lunch in the park program at our house and/or opening the cartons and pouring them in the yard near the door. They’ve also been leaving a speaker near open windows and blasting random sounds and music at all hours of the day and night and tapping on the windows during the day.

Over the weekend, the boys printed out “WANTED” signs with a picture of one of them on it and taped them to each of our windows and both the front and back doors. We took them all down but kept one as evidence of what happened.

Then last night around 1:30 am, they were out throwing things towards the house, hitting the street signs with metal poles and blasting music and weird sounds towards the open windows. We’d assumed they had stopped after a while of them finally being quiet, however one of the boys came up to my open window, face on the screen, and whispered menacingly “you’re on the FBI watchlist”.

It obviously scared the s**t out of me and I said “wtf dude, leave and don’t do it again”. Then the other boy did the same exact thing at my window.

I got up and asked my younger sister if they’d also done it to her, she had her window closed so we assumed they didn’t try talking, but she said she heard tapping on her window. My mom went outside to see where they were or if they were still in the yard and saw them sneaking back to under my window again.

My mom told them if she caught them doing it again that we would call the police and make a report. We also will be talking to their parents later today when they get home.

Ideally, we don’t want to call the police, but I honestly don’t think they’d stop even after talking with the parents. I think the police telling them to stop might scare them off enough to where they stop bothering us entirely though.

Comment from u/aj_alva

Comment from u/SorryAd6335

Comment from u/IamIrene

Comment from u/ScaryButterscotch474

Comment from u/Not_Serial_Murdering

Comment from u/Fickle_Card193

Comment from u/kaleidoscope_view

Comment from u/ShelbyJo_

Comment from u/Forsaken_Pick3201

Comment from u/Antique-Agent-2992

Comment from u/Status_Signature6334

Comment from u/nurseasaurus

Comment from u/nutsmasher42069

Comment from u/top_fed2017

Comment from u/attorneydummy

Comment from u/SeamStressed1

Comment from u/LivinRightNBeinFree

Comment from u/Plus_Ad_9181

Share your thoughts and experiences in the comments section.