Someone Really Must Love Their SUV

[Jenn D]

Do any of the members who've been here for a while remember another member a while back who had a car with teens in it throw and egg at their ST. He then chased them down a back road, called the cops, caught the kids and took them to court to pay for the damages?



Anyone remember who that is? I'd LOVE to revive that post for this discussion. Mainly becase I personally think it was more proportional of a response.

 

[Greg Stuhlsatz]

I had some teenagers in a jeep hit me and my motorcycle with a water balloon. I was headed towards them at 45 and them maybe 40. Talk about being shocked. I have never felt anything like it. When I came to my senses what had happened I turned around to chase them down. If I would of caught them I would of been in a brawl. My adrenaline was through the top. :angry:

 

[Fred]

I remember the thread Jenn D, but don't remember who it was.

 

[2]

Jenn D - in that former post the culprits were in a vehicle when they threw the eggs, it would be much easier to follow a vehicle and call the cops compared to chasing down hoodlums that are on foot.

 

[Johnny O]

If more criminals got shot while committing crimes, there would be less criminals.

 

[Thomas Rogers]

JohnnyO said:

If more criminals got shot while committing crimes, there would be less criminals.

True, but there would be more incidents of innocent people shot and killed because they were mistaken for criminals.



Like that drunk guy that tried to get into his neigbor's house because he thought it was his own. The homeowner thought someone was trying to break in, so he opened the door and shot him....killing him. The drunk guy was guilty of having a good time and walking home with impaired judgement...something people here have said is not illegal, so surely he shouldn't die because of it???



TJR

 

[Nelson Atwell]

TJR,



Exactly. In this case, one of the boys involved stated the one shot was just there, but never threw any eggs.

 

[2]

Exactly. In this case, one of the boys involved stated the one shot was just there, but never threw any eggs.

Guilty by association. Better watch who you hang out with when they are doing illegal activities.

 

[Nelson Atwell]

By that rationale, if any of our family members commit a crime, then we must go down with them. Sounds illogical to me.

 

[Thomas Rogers]

Ponderous, ponderous the attitudes of some here. To see things so clearly in black and white.



I was 10 years old when myself and a bunch of other friends of mine threw crab apples at cars going by (we were hiding in the trees near the road). A car stopped at the next nearby house (my folks) and I got spanked but good when I got home. My thought process then, at the time I committed the prank, was that it was "fun", "it wouldn't hurt the cars", and we were just "goofing off". That's the way young kids think, at times. It wasn't my idea, but you get three or four kids or more together and somehow stupid things happen.



Did I know better? Sure, we all did, that's why we hid. But we weren't thinking like adults, that someone might get hurt, and that property might be damaged.



Kids do stupid things. Teens do stupid things. Young adults hang out with others that might, do unexpected and stupid things.



Let he who has never done a stupid thing when young cast the first stone...or should I say fire the first shot!



TJR

 

[shawn stonbraker 2]

Well stated TJR. I did ALOT of stupid stuff growing up and my friends and I still joke that it's a wonder we never killed ourselves with some of it. Not saying that I agree with shooting someone over an egg to my car, but I do have to say I would probably be ticked enough to whoop some a**. But as stated before, it wouldn't surprise me if when I did get out of the car, one of them would be "packing heat". We used to get chased by trucks though the cornfields when we would corn during Holloween. Now-a-days, I would be afraid to even try thowing corn at a car. The person probably is packing. But we were kids back then and we didn't think much of it at the time. We lived far from town so we had to come up with our own fun. unfortunately, this story is the "worse case senario" for a prank gone wrong.

 

[Jose Santana]

I remeber pegging cars with snowballs and eggs and although extremly dangerous I didn't deserve to die over it! These are the STUPID things kids do.... Like it or not this is common for kids to do..... Now dropping rocks or heavy objects onto moving cars is a bit different as you are intentionally trying to do damage. I think with snowballs and eggs your aim is just to hit the car, which typically does not cause that much damage, but you can lose control which I do not think kids really think about!



JOSEYMACK

 

[Gerald Pierce]

Caymen said:

The difference is that I would not have ever dreamed of doing that, or anything else, to someones personal property. I know how hard my father worked to provide his family with a good life. Nobody deserves to have a prank pulled on them that could damage property.



I would agree that shooting them was wrong, but it is the kids fault for putting himself in that situation in the first place.

Tom, I agree. Shooting was wrong, BUT the kids should not have been messing with someone's property in the first place. Where do you draw the line? An egg? A glass bottle of water? A rock off the overpass?



I remember a day when toilet papering and pumpkin kicking was the worst we would do.... kid's today have gotten out of control, and instead of dealing with our kid's, we try to justify what they do. "Oh, it's just a harmless prank". My A$$.



While stationed in Philly, we had a kid egg our car when the temps were in the teens.... the paint spiderwebbed into about a 1 foot square area, requiring the entire side of the vehicle to be repainted at my insurance company's expense. Not to mention the fact I had to go out and clean off the side of the car before it froze onto the paint. I caught the kids that did it, and was darn near put in jail for confronting the parents. Where is the justice?

 

[Thomas Rogers]

Cruz says:

Tom, I agree. Shooting was wrong, BUT the kids should not have been messing with someone's property in the first place. Where do you draw the line? An egg? A glass bottle of water? A rock off the overpass?

You are correct. Either we have absolutes, or we figure out where to draw lines. I don't believe in absolutes. I believe in proproportional response. Seems you believe more in absolutes...



Then Cruz said:

I remember a day when toilet papering and pumpkin kicking was the worst we would do.... kid's today have gotten out of control, and instead of dealing with our kid's, we try to justify what they do. "Oh, it's just a harmless prank". My A$$.

How is toilet papering a house not "messing with someone's property", which is where you seem to say the line should be drawn? It makes properties look like crap, right? Kicking someone elses pumpkin and destroying it is destruction of property, right? Being on someone's property with the single intent to TP or to destroy a pumpkin is tresspassing with illegal intent...clearly grounds for retaliation. What would the appropriate retaliation be?



Of course, I am being a little absurd, but it seems any prank from TPing, to an egg, to a flaming bag of crap on a porch CAN go wrong, hurt someone or damage property, but obviously that wasn't the intent of the prankster.



Yes, folks, we have to draw lines. We have to. We can't simply say: Well, you shouldn't have been doing that...sorry I have to kill you now! We have to look at the offense, guage intent, and punish accordingly.



TJR

 

[Tom Schindler]

Either we have absolutes, or we figure out where to draw lines. I don't believe in absolutes. I believe in proproportional response. Seems you believe more in absolutes...

TJR, while I agree with you, I also disagree. A crime is a crime. You throw something, be it a brick, a ball of newspaper, or a bag of feathers, all three can cause an injury or death. Where do you draw the line?

How is toilet papering a house not "messing with someone's property", which is where you seem to say the line should be drawn?

You got him there. TP'ing a house is something I have never done. Been invited to, but I chose not to participate.

Of course, I am being a little absurd, but it seems any prank from TPing, to an egg, to a flaming bag of crap on a porch CAN go wrong, hurt someone or damage property, but obviously that wasn't the intent of the prankster.

I am sure it was never the intent of the prankster to get hurt or hurt someone else. Then again, most thing we do we don't plan on hurting someone, but it does happen. Don't pull pranks and you are helping to eliminate a possible problem.



In other words, don't pull pranks no matter how harmless they may seem.





Tom

 

[Jeff C]

In other words, don't pull pranks no matter how harmless they may seem.

What about putting saran wrap over your roommate's toilet seat in the middle of the night?

 

[Tom Schindler]

Well, that is between your roommate and yourself. ;-)





Tom

 

[Thomas Rogers]

Sure Caymen, a crime is a crime, but not all crimes carry the same punishment. Where do you draw the line, Caymen? You draw the line in the punishment, and you make the punishment fit the crime. Killing someone for throwing an egg is inexcusable, and no one in their right mind can defend it by saying "well they shouldn't have been doing that". It doesn't excuse the over-reaction.

 

[Bill V]

The closest I've ever come to dying was a few years ago, when I was riding my bike in the bike lane/sidewalk along the side of a road. Some kids came driving down the road in the same direction as me, and as they passed me, I got hit in the face by an egg thrown from them. I wiped out the bike, falling into the lane of traffic behind the car with the egg throwers. The vehicle behind them slammed on the brakes, and came to a stop with the front tire about two feet short of running over my head. The egg throwers continued down the street, throwing more eggs at cars traveling in both directions. The driver of the car that nearly hit me got the license plate number, but it came up as being invalid--either the driver got the number wrong, or the car had mocked up some phony plates for this outing to keep from getting caught.



As far as I'm concerned, based on what happened to me, the egg throwers in Columbus were guilty of nothing short of attempted murder--a crime that I have no qualms about being eligible for capital punishment. The biggest problem I have with what the SUV driver did was that he didn't go back and get the other two kids as well.

 

[Tom Schindler]

Sure Caymen, a crime is a crime, but not all crimes carry the same punishment. Where do you draw the line, Caymen?

I will ask you the same thing. Who gets to decide that throwing an egg is OK, but throwing a hard boiled egg isn't? You don't want absolutes, so you say what is the best way to go.





Tom