Talking with a friend about juvenile crime. He sent me a news item about "ding dong dash"

[captain queeg]

Some kids were going up and ringing peoples door bell then running, I’d never heard the term ding dong dash before. These kids ended up running out into the street and getting hit. Anyway, my friend said they used to do that a lot when he was a kid. Made me think of my juvenile crimes. I don’t remember doing that but we used to rig a fire cracker to a cigarette and leave it on someone’s doorbstep so it would blow up a few minutes later after we’d run off. I didn’t smoke but of course cigarettes were pretty common, you could get them from a machine for a quarter. I got caught shoplifting cigarettes one time. When I thought about that I don’t remember how that came about. They must have been out in the open back then. That was the height of my criminal career. We got caught and they called our parents and that pretty well cured me

What juvenile crimes did you perpatrate as a kid?

[Ferrets are Cool]

1. I can only remember two times that I was a juvenile criminal

Once when I was about 6, I stole a wrapper of gum from the checkout aisle. When I got outside, my brain recognized the beating I would get if I was found out, so I immediately threw it away.
The second time was purely accidental. We were at the entrance of Rock City and I saw a sparrow underneath a bush about 20 feet away from me. As a 10 year old, I threw rocks at everything, so, of course, I threw a rock at the poor sparrow. I hit it and killed it. I was scared to death that someone had seen me and I would get thrown in jail
I regret both incidents.

[Me.]

5. Prince Alberts In A Can?

Is your refrigerator running?

[Ferrets are Cool]

7. Yeah, I'm that old.

[LakeArenal]

2. A group of three or four girls would T-P houses of boys we liked.

That was when there was plenty of toilet paper on a roll wed do 20-40 rolls.

Ring the doorbell and run. ( All planned strategically, scoping out while light out)

While running through back yards, Mary picked up a tomato from a picnic table and ate it as we went along. When back on a side walk she threw the half eaten tomato down and it land near a man’s step. We kept walking. The man came out and chased us but he managed to catch Mary.
We were terrified for her and went back to help her. He called the cops we were driven home by the police.

The End.

[rampartc]

3. i've always considered crimes involving toilet paper or spray paint to be senseless

so i went directly to alcohol and drugs.

[captain queeg]

4. I went back and watched the referenced video clip

I’d just quickly perused it with no sound the first time and didn’t get the story right. This guy chased the kids down in his car, apparently the kids made their get away in a car. With 6 kids in it. The guy ran them off the road and 3 kids were killed. WTF is wrong with people? They hadn’t attacked, damaged any property, how can people like this live out in society? I guess that guy won’t be living out in society for the rest of his life.

[Midnight Writer]

6. An old widow lady across the street from me was terrorized by kids doing this.

They would do it over and over, even in the middle of the night. They would also rap on her windows, pound on the side of her house.

She was well and truly scared to death.

Some of us neighbors saw the kids and figured out where one of them lived. We went in a group and talked to the kid's parents. That was the end of it.

[Skittles]

10. I put a stop to such activity on one of my GI brat moves

they had it in for an older couple due to some past grievance and were constantly doing stuff like that - I told them, come on, grow up, knock it off.....and they did stop.

[nolabear]

8. I had a boyfriend who was a master at prank calls.

His favorite (mind you, this was the late 60s) was to call someone and tell them that he was a lineman working on a pole trying to fix a problem, and that in the next few minutes he would send a current through the line that might cause their phone to ring, and that they shouldn't answer it because it could send a voltage through that would harm him. They'd hang up and he'd dial back. That boy would let that sucker ring for fifteen minutes if necessary. And if someone picked up he'd let out a scream that would peel paint.

Of course I have no idea if anyone was actually terrified they'd killed someone but on our end it was hilarious.

Btw we had a group of ding dong dashers here about a year and a half ago. They drove me nuts for three consecutive weekends, returning several times a night. Either they didn't know we had a RING camera or didn't care, but we had clear video. Eventually I called the police just to ask if they'd do a drive through the neighborhood but I think the kids just lost interest eventually, thank goodness.

[Solly Mack]

9. I plead the 5th.