<p>The flamingo fundraiser thing was very popular here a couple years ago. I thought it was SO cute, but the donation was fairly sizeable to get someone’s yard done and I could never afford it!</p>
<p>Was quite a TP-er in my youth. It was more fun when toilet paper came in all those different colors.</p>
<p>So when do we meet up to TP coarranged’s house and flamingo ellemenope’s house?</p>
<p>“Okay, 33 posts in and no one has said this: anyone who shoots at someone (3 TIMES!) for this should be put in prison.”</p>
<p>The problem is that the man may have very legitimately thought that the teen was in the process of breaking into his home.</p>
<p>The situation is an excellent example of why I don’t like the idea of people using guns for so-called self defense. Many innocent people have been killed and wounded that way including completely innocent family members and friends of the shooters.</p>
<p>If the man who shot the teen had called police instead of going outside to shoot the intruders, I doubt that the police would have shot the teen.</p>
<p>I can understand that the man thought the teen was an intruder. Some people have posted here that the man should have noticed that it was just a kid on his lawn. Some teen boys are bigger than are many adult men. Some also are armed.</p>
<p>I understand the people who are upset because there was a shooting. My personal opinion, however, is that the incident would not have occurred had the kids not been trying to vandalize the man’s home. Yes, that is what TPing is–vandalism. It is against the law…</p>
<p>Couching is also environmentally responsible…perfect recycling activity! ;-)</p>
<p>^^
So if you cut me off on the highway, I get to shoot you?</p>
<p>I think I would be more mad at the fact that so much toilet paper and forks and plastic is going to waste than having to clean it all up. I care about the environment, shoot me.</p>
<p>I have never seen a house TPed around here. I play a varsity sport, and I never even knew kids did that.</p>
<p>My son’s friend forked a friend’s house while he was out for the evening, then hid in the nearby woods to watch the results when the “victim” came home. In the dark, the forker didn’t realize he was hiding in a patch of poison ivy… so guess who got the last laugh?</p>
<p>maysixxmom, you’re right - there was a donation involved to get the flamingoes put onto someone’s lawn to start with, then the “victim” could make a donation to get them put onto someone ELSE’s lawn, or else after a few days they would be picked up at no charge. I had forgotten how that worked. There might have been rules about repeats, too, so that no one lawn was re-victimized too often. </p>
<p>When my kids were little, there was a tradition in our town to put balloons on the mailbox when a baby was born. An older neighbor decided it would be funny to put pink balloons on my mailbox while we were away one weekend. So in retaliation another friend and I put a “For Sale By Neighbors” sign in the older neighbor’s front yard while he was away. Good times…</p>
<p>I’m trying to figure out how the heck a kid throwing a roll of TP up a tree can be mistaken for a home intruder. Especially given how visible strands of TP are, even in the dark.</p>
<p>That’s the wonderful thing about the so-called “castle doctrine”; shoot first, question later.</p>
<p>In our neighborhood, we have had numerous instances of vandalism and breakins. Egging houses, smashing car windows with baseball bats for “fun” as well as stealing the contents, breaking house windows and running like heck when the alarm sets off on a dare. One weekend we had twenty (no exaggeration) car windows destroyed as a group of males in a pickup truck with baseball bats drove through the neighborhood smashing everything in site - no arrests made. We have three houses within two blocks of me that have teenage males who have all been in trouble with the police (we live in a middle class neighborhood) for what their parents refer to as “youthful indiscretions” that they are more than willing to buy their sons out of. They and their friends run the streets with their music blaring and louder than normal mufflers tossing empty beer bottles in yards and at cats until about 4am most weekends. (and football team members are part of the group). </p>
<p>Given the peeping tom who has been plaguing the neighborhood and the couple of professional burglaries that have hit the neighborhood, everyone is a little more cautious and scared these days here. I can see where some of the folks here would take any out of the ordinary later night activity on their property as threatening. I could see this happening in our neighborhood. (No, I don’t own a gun). Especially given that so far, calling the police hasn’t resulted in any arrests that stuck cause the culprits make it back to the safety of their homes before the police arrive most of the time and Mom and Dad vouch for them. There are some who are just so fed up they may take matters into their own hands while waiting for the police to arrive. </p>
<p>Hard to determine between what you consider harmless youthful pranks and expensive destruction of property in my neighborhood these days.</p>
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<p>Please tell who else is “part of the group.” No need to single out one group.</p>
<p>“Hard to determine between what you consider harmless youthful pranks and expensive destruction of property in my neighborhood these days.”</p>
<p>I don’t think it’s hard at all. Egging, smashing windows and stealing are over the line. In my day, the bad boys went “mailboxing” – running up on the curb and knocking over post mailboxes.</p>
<p>I have to tell my favorite peeping tom story. There was a notorious peeping tom in a city near where we were living at the time. One older lady at seen a face at the window and been scared out of her wits. One night she heard someone screaming, “Somebody please call the police!!! Please call the cops!!!” When the police got there, the peeping tom started shouting, “Just shoot me! Please just shoot me!!!”</p>
<p>Turns out the older lady had got someone to wrap razor wire through the bush under her window 
Bet that guy never peeped again!</p>
<p>This article clarifies that it was birdshot. The article also states that the man shot out the rear window of the car while they were driving away – can birdshot do that? There is a picture of the house as well, and it looks rather isolated. The land is posted with No Trespassing signs.</p>
<p>[www.wzzm13.com</a> : Grand Rapids : Boy shot while trying to toilet paper house released from hospital](<a href=“404 Not Found | wzzm13.com”>404 Not Found | wzzm13.com)</p>
<p>^^ I’ve never shot a car window but I suppose it could depending on the load and distance and particular window. Apparently, according to the article, it did in this case. I don’t know why he’d shoot the window of the car on purpose though. If it was done while they were fleeing then I’d expect the homeowner would be brought up on charges. Maybe it was hit while he was firing at the kids which he also shouldn’t have done unless he felt he was in great physical danger.</p>
<p>I or a friend did shoot a tire on a truck once with a 12 guage with number 8 or 9 shot (bird shot) from 10 or 20 feet away and it just bounced off.</p>
<p>I’ve also been hit with shot before from about 100 yards or so away and it stung but didn’t break the skin.</p>