Keep tabs on kids now; don’t apologize later

Published 5:00 am Thursday, May 5, 2005

Five area youths thought rolling of a neighbor’s yard atmidnight on Saturday, April 23 was going to be a fun outing.Instead they were having a prayer meeting with the Lincoln countySheriff’s Department on Sunday night, April 24.

As I approached my home Sunday night in the Arlington community,I noticed that the trees had been rolled with toilet paper. Thesituation quickly went from bad to worse the more I saw. As I camenear my home, I noticed that a window had been pried open. Uponentering my home, I saw toilet paper and shaving cream everywhere(yes, we are talking about inside). In addition, my motor home hadbeen rolled and covered in shaving cream, also inside and out.

I immediately placed a call to 911. The sheriff’s departmentdispatched a very professional officer named Kevin Locke to handlethis case of breaking and entering and vandalism. The deputy hadthe case totally solved and under control in about 30 minutes.After a few phone calls, Locke and I were dealing with fivejuveniles and their mothers. (No dads.)

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After one hour of crying and pleading by the moms not to sendtheir little Johnnies to jail, I gave in and agreed to restitutionof returning my property to its original condition before theSaturday night outing. I now feel that this was a big mistake on mypart.

The next morning, the five little Johnnies and only four momsshowed up to begin the cleanup as agreed for not pressing charges.After several hours of work, they all agreed to return at 4 thatafternoon to finish the job. At 4 p.m., only two Johnnies and twomoms showed up. Just I had figured. The rest were too busy to honortheir begging and crying pleas from the night before. How quicklythey forget. The two that did honor the agreement finished what wehad agreed upon and were on their way with no money out of theirpockets. Needless to say, I was very disappointed in the otherlittle Johnnies and their moms (still no dads) for not showingup.

As I cooled off for the evening, I was contemplating what hadhappened and whether I should have handled the situationdifferently? First of all: I should have let Deputy Locke take allthe little Johnnies downtown that night to be dealt with. All ofthe crying and pleading from the night before was quicklyforgotten, and the agreement was taken serious only by a few. I doappreciate the cooperation of these few, but not one of the boyshas called to apologize for breaking and entering and vandalizingmy home. I guess I am lucky. They could have been playing withgasoline and matches.

What bothers me is how this prank so quickly escalated from amere rolling of a yard to prying open a window and going inside tovandalize my home. Was there not one of the five youths willing tospeak up to say “this is wrong”?

You will see some of these characters again. Some may go to PennState, but some will go to the state pen. Breaking into someone’shome is a very serious offense, not something to do for fun.

I also thought of how my parents would have handledthis same situation. First of all, a call from the sheriff’sdepartment would result in both mom and dad arriving onsite, and discipline would have been administered immediately infront of everyone. Secondly, my parents would have seen to it thatI did what I said I would do to make full restitution to everyone’ssatisfaction.

In addition, I would be apologizing numerous times, and itcertainly would be a very long time before I would have been ableto leave the house, in more ways than one. My parents made it theirbusiness to know where I was and what group I was with. I was in agang of boys called the Boy Scouts of America, and, by the way, Iam an Eagle Scout.