I never thought it would be me. I've turned into a curmudgeon - the steoeotypical old man yelling at the neighborhood kids to "stay the hell out of my bushes."
I'm 28 years old. I've lived in my house in the Mallard Point section of Brick Township since 2001. I like to think I'm an average kind of chap. I tend to be respectful of my neighbors. I feel bad if I keep the light on in my side yard overnight by mistake as it shines on my neighbors house. When we have a party I make sure that we turn down our music and don't make too much noise after 9PM. Pretty average stuff.
The last few nights have been hell for us. The local neighborhood kids have essentally had a free pass to make as much noise, at whatever time of night they want, with their fireworks. We're not talking about firecrackers and bottle rockets either. We're talking full on mortars and roman candles. This is the sort of stuff that I may expect to see early on in the show put on by Point Pleasant.
Sunday night, my wife had just gotten our daughter to sleep when it happened. It sounded like a war zone. A series of rapid-fire explosions and huge burts of fireworks in the sky. The windows of my house - located maybe 500' from the small municipal beach where the kids light these things off - shook. My wife took my flash light, ran down to the beach, and started yelling. The kids took off running. She came back inside and I went down to the beach to investigate. There were several dozen spent fireworks, six spent mortar tubes, an untold number of firecracker wrappers, etc. We called the police.
Fourty minutes later a BTPD cruiser showed up. I showed him the remnants of what happened. Of course the kids were long gone. We loaded up a bucket with all of the trash and he asked me to throw it out.
Monday night, it happened again, except that the kids had moved from the beach and were now shooting them off their porch that overlooks Kettle Creek. Again, they woke up my baby. Again, I called the police and directed them to the house that was shooting off fireworks. I asked if there was a way that I could sign a compaint against these kids. The officers sort of brushed that off.
Around 12:30 the explosions started up again. At this point my wife had taken the baby into the bedroom with her, so she could calm her quickly when she got woken up. I ran down to the street with my Mag-Lite in time to see six kids sitting around lighting off mortars. I asked them "Do you have any idea what time it is?" and they all "apologized." None of them seemed too concerned that they were making a huge racket, or that they had worken my daughter up. Incrediously, they said "it's the Fourth of July" as if that somehow was a justification to light off illegal fireworks and disturb the neighborhood. Even more amazing, the kids started complaining that the flashlight that I was shining on them was too bright! As if somehow the inconvenience of my flashlight was worse then their rapid fire explosions.
Again I called the police. I gave them the plate number of one of the kid's vehicles. I gave them a description of the vehicle. I gave them a description of the kid.
Fifteen minutes later the police show up. "Oh, so the kids are gone," the officer asked. As if the kids were going to gleefully wait for the police to show up. Again I asked about signing a complaint. The officer said "What do you think you could charge them with?" He seemed amazed that I understood what "disturbing the peace" was. I don't know if he didn't want to get involved, but again I got blown off with regards to signing a complaint. The police explained that they would find the kid, put his name into their "computer," and have him come back down to the beach and clean up the spent fireworks and trash they left behind.
When I woke up this morning, most of the fireworks and trash were gone. I suppose either the police themselves or the kid cleaned it up.
Yesterday, when my wife was out walking the baby, she spoke with several neighbors that were all equally annoyed thet they had to deal with the noise of the fireworks. One of my neighbors lives right next to the beach, and his house was pelted by fireworks debris. Still, nobody was down there yelling at the kids, except for us. It baffles my mind that everyone around me who pays a mortgage to live here would just sit and play dead to a bunch of kids who are out looking for a good time.
I appreciate the police coming out, but you could tell that they couldn't (or didn't want to) do anything about the problem, despite having an address and a licence plate number provided to them.
I don't know where the parents of these kids are. Certainly they're not dealing with the noise of their kids fireworks, since the kids come down to the beach to fire them off. I suppose none of them are thinking of their kids safety, or the safety of their neighbors property. Certainly they're not thinking of the noise that their kids are making.
I hate to be the guy who is trying to "ruin" the fun for these kids, but I pay a lot of money to live in a relatively quiet section of town. My baby deserves to be able to sleep. We shouldn't have to hear fireworks at all hours of the night. I only wish more people stood up for themselves. Maybe we could take back our neighborhood.
I suppose, though, that being respectful of your neighbors is so yesterday.
I'm 28 years old. I've lived in my house in the Mallard Point section of Brick Township since 2001. I like to think I'm an average kind of chap. I tend to be respectful of my neighbors. I feel bad if I keep the light on in my side yard overnight by mistake as it shines on my neighbors house. When we have a party I make sure that we turn down our music and don't make too much noise after 9PM. Pretty average stuff.
The last few nights have been hell for us. The local neighborhood kids have essentally had a free pass to make as much noise, at whatever time of night they want, with their fireworks. We're not talking about firecrackers and bottle rockets either. We're talking full on mortars and roman candles. This is the sort of stuff that I may expect to see early on in the show put on by Point Pleasant.
Sunday night, my wife had just gotten our daughter to sleep when it happened. It sounded like a war zone. A series of rapid-fire explosions and huge burts of fireworks in the sky. The windows of my house - located maybe 500' from the small municipal beach where the kids light these things off - shook. My wife took my flash light, ran down to the beach, and started yelling. The kids took off running. She came back inside and I went down to the beach to investigate. There were several dozen spent fireworks, six spent mortar tubes, an untold number of firecracker wrappers, etc. We called the police.
Fourty minutes later a BTPD cruiser showed up. I showed him the remnants of what happened. Of course the kids were long gone. We loaded up a bucket with all of the trash and he asked me to throw it out.
Monday night, it happened again, except that the kids had moved from the beach and were now shooting them off their porch that overlooks Kettle Creek. Again, they woke up my baby. Again, I called the police and directed them to the house that was shooting off fireworks. I asked if there was a way that I could sign a compaint against these kids. The officers sort of brushed that off.
Around 12:30 the explosions started up again. At this point my wife had taken the baby into the bedroom with her, so she could calm her quickly when she got woken up. I ran down to the street with my Mag-Lite in time to see six kids sitting around lighting off mortars. I asked them "Do you have any idea what time it is?" and they all "apologized." None of them seemed too concerned that they were making a huge racket, or that they had worken my daughter up. Incrediously, they said "it's the Fourth of July" as if that somehow was a justification to light off illegal fireworks and disturb the neighborhood. Even more amazing, the kids started complaining that the flashlight that I was shining on them was too bright! As if somehow the inconvenience of my flashlight was worse then their rapid fire explosions.
Again I called the police. I gave them the plate number of one of the kid's vehicles. I gave them a description of the vehicle. I gave them a description of the kid.
Fifteen minutes later the police show up. "Oh, so the kids are gone," the officer asked. As if the kids were going to gleefully wait for the police to show up. Again I asked about signing a complaint. The officer said "What do you think you could charge them with?" He seemed amazed that I understood what "disturbing the peace" was. I don't know if he didn't want to get involved, but again I got blown off with regards to signing a complaint. The police explained that they would find the kid, put his name into their "computer," and have him come back down to the beach and clean up the spent fireworks and trash they left behind.
When I woke up this morning, most of the fireworks and trash were gone. I suppose either the police themselves or the kid cleaned it up.
Yesterday, when my wife was out walking the baby, she spoke with several neighbors that were all equally annoyed thet they had to deal with the noise of the fireworks. One of my neighbors lives right next to the beach, and his house was pelted by fireworks debris. Still, nobody was down there yelling at the kids, except for us. It baffles my mind that everyone around me who pays a mortgage to live here would just sit and play dead to a bunch of kids who are out looking for a good time.
I appreciate the police coming out, but you could tell that they couldn't (or didn't want to) do anything about the problem, despite having an address and a licence plate number provided to them.
I don't know where the parents of these kids are. Certainly they're not dealing with the noise of their kids fireworks, since the kids come down to the beach to fire them off. I suppose none of them are thinking of their kids safety, or the safety of their neighbors property. Certainly they're not thinking of the noise that their kids are making.
I hate to be the guy who is trying to "ruin" the fun for these kids, but I pay a lot of money to live in a relatively quiet section of town. My baby deserves to be able to sleep. We shouldn't have to hear fireworks at all hours of the night. I only wish more people stood up for themselves. Maybe we could take back our neighborhood.
I suppose, though, that being respectful of your neighbors is so yesterday.
. There has really been a lot of archaeological activity on the site recently,