Anti-Social Behaviour

LegacyUser

Hi,

I was looking for some advice on the following problem:

There is a gang (ranging in size between 10 - 20) of teenagers (14 - 17 yrs) old that hang around outside my house most nights of the week. 30% of the time they're just making noise not actually causing any harm, but the other 70% of the time they're being a nuisance.

They destroyed (pulled down) a street sign recently just for the hell of it.

Sometimes they set bits of cardboard & paper on fire on the footpath; and the other day one of them had petrol that he was pouring on the footpath and setting light to.

They also see nothing wrong with going into people's front gardens and lying on the grass from time to time!

The Gardai have been informed and have been here a few times, they do the odd drive-by and tell the kids to move on - but as soon as the Gardai leave the gang arrives back again!

Now normally I'm not intimidated by people like this and I'd tell them exactly where to go.

But the thing is, they know exactly where I live; you don't s**t on your own doorstep! I'd be worried about arriving home one day to find a brick through the front window, or having the wheely-bin burned one night (as happened to a neighbour)...

So the advice I'm looking for is how best to approach this situation.

seamus

Is there any particular reason why they're hanging around that particular spot? Is it dark, secluded, is there somewhere for them to sit, etc?

My in-laws had similar problems with a laneway down the side of their house. It was dark and secluded. Most nights, there's be a gang of 10-15 kids from all over (some were from more than 20km away), they interfered with electricity boxes, knocked bricks off walls and occasionally climbed into the back garden. The Gardai would come along when called, but like yours they would disperse and then come back again 20 minutes later.

Eventually one side of the laneway was pulled down by the council, replaced by railings and a series of lights set up along the length of the lane. With the increased visibility in the lane, it was no longer an attractive place for them to hang out and they were gone.

There are probably a few things you could do between yourselves and your neighbours to generally make it less fun to hang around:
- Install gates on your gardens and lock them
- Put grease along the tops of garden walls and anywhere else that they may be sitting, electricity boxes and so forth.
- If it's particuarly dark on your road, install a good spotlight on the front of the house and make sure it illuminates the road in front of your house.

LegacyUser

Thanks Seamus for the advice.

The house is in a built up housing estate, but it's on a corner - so in a way i think they see it as keeping away from the majority of people's houses!

The other houses they hang around outside don't have houses on the opposite side of the road - just a school wall. Those are the only reasons I can see why it'd be more attractive for them to gather there. Less people watching!

Some of them live on the same road as me; but as usual I don't recognise the main trouble makers as local. But I suppose the kids that live here don't want to tell them to stop; or maybe they just don't care!

I don't want to go down the route of putting grease all over walls, fences & gates, that'll just be ugly and messy for us in the long run.

It's not dark on the road, streetlights everywhere, but even on these long summer evenings when it's bright they're out there for everyone to see - I think that they just don't care!

mikemac

seamus wrote: »

I
There are probably a few things you could do between yourselves and your neighbours to generally make it less fun to hang around:
- Install gates on your gardens and lock them
- Put grease along the tops of garden walls and anywhere else that they may be sitting, electricity boxes and so forth.
- If it's particuarly dark on your road, install a good spotlight on the front of the house and make sure it illuminates the road in front of your house.

+1
This is what you want OP
And maybe get a metal cage over the spotlight, you don't want kids chucking stones at it

LegacyUser

My Local shop had the same problem and they got a Mosquito Alarm fitted

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mosquito

specifically used to solve teenage loitering as the frequency can only be heard by young people. Solved their problem almost immediately!

tenchi-fan

I was going to suggest the mosquito alarm too!
Don't confront these kids or they will make your life a misery.
I was talking to a chap who said he had to move because he lived in a corner house and didnt get a break from the asbos in the area.

Trashbat

Mosquito alarm wrote: »

My Local shop had the same problem and they got a Mosquito Alarm fitted

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mosquito

specifically used to solve teenage loitering as the frequency can only be heard by young people. Solved their problem almost immediately!

Apparently bordering on the illegal in Ireland, but a ggod idea nonetheless!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mosquito#Republic_of_Ireland