When I was a kid right and wrong were clearly spelled out and if you got caught doing the wrong thing you were punished. If you were a "good kid" you decided not to do it again, if you were a " bad kid," you learned not to get caught again.
Now a days it seems like the answer to getting caught is to get revenge.
Here is a short story......
A neighbor's kids (young "adults" with kids of their own) were over at their parents house. We live in a rural area about 2 miles from town on 2 to 3 acre lots. During the day I heard the kids setting off fireworks and didnt think too much about it. A couple of days later when my husband was home we heard a loud boom, I told him I heard the kids at the neighbors setting off much smaller fireworks earlier in the week and it was probably them. We noticed a cloud of smoke rising from their property and figured they had set off a pretty big charge M 80 or something. It seemed unlikely that our neighbors would have let the kids do this, but they both work during the week and are active in the Mormon church on their time off, so they arent around alot of the time.
The boom we had heard was so loud it shook our windows and of course we wondered if anybody got hurt. My husband went over to see and just as he approached the property another boom went off .....dust and debris and smoke going up in the air.. The kids had run around the corner of a large shed after setting it off for some shelter and were just on their way back to inspect the "damage". Their comments had something to with "pipe bombs". My husband approached them as they were inspecting the hole in the ground. One of them had a child/infant in a carrier on his back. My husband approached them expressing concern about what they were doing. First of all he told them the explosions were so loud that they could be felt over at our place, second that anything that powerful was clearly against the law, thirdly that they were extremely dangerous, and even if they themselves were willing to risk injury, they also endangered the child he was holding. He wasnt shouting at them, or swearing, or threatening them. He was really just trying to talk some sense to them and told them not to set off any more. I think they understood and they quit. (Were they really so stupid that they thought no one would notice or care.....all our neighbors had heard it and wondered what it was).
So a few days later I was working out on the driveway and I noticed something on the ground....I thought maybe it was a bird's eggs, maybe blown out of a nest or stolen out of a nest by a crow or something....but then I noticed another one and since we are out walking every morning with the dogs I knew it hadnt been there earlier. I picked it up and showed my husband but he didnt look real closely and just figured like me that it was a egg or something. But more and more of them appeared and I finally figured it out......paint balls......so then I started to look around and noticed a trail of unbroken paint balls over in the bushes leading over to the neighbors house. There were many many smeared in our driveway and up towards our car and the area I was working in. We hadnt told the neighbors about the fireworks incident because the kids had stopped when we confronted them...but this was a little different, so we decided to talk to their dad about it when he came home from work that evening. When we went over to their property the shed and a boat and the yard were all smeared with paint balls. We explained to the dad what went on and his response was that he would just have to beat some sense into the kid......but I suggested maybe that he should TALK to him about him.....he said the kid and his family were just visiting for the week and would be gone by friday anyway.
I felt lucky that the revenge in this case was relatively harmless, more annoying than anything, but it was so senseless and could escalate if not addressed at this point.
So any opinions about this incident and any other feelings about the threat of revenge.
I had previously experienced a totally different incident that resulted in much
more devious revenge and the police, so I have a definite aversion to getting involved at all.
Now a days it seems like the answer to getting caught is to get revenge.
Here is a short story......
A neighbor's kids (young "adults" with kids of their own) were over at their parents house. We live in a rural area about 2 miles from town on 2 to 3 acre lots. During the day I heard the kids setting off fireworks and didnt think too much about it. A couple of days later when my husband was home we heard a loud boom, I told him I heard the kids at the neighbors setting off much smaller fireworks earlier in the week and it was probably them. We noticed a cloud of smoke rising from their property and figured they had set off a pretty big charge M 80 or something. It seemed unlikely that our neighbors would have let the kids do this, but they both work during the week and are active in the Mormon church on their time off, so they arent around alot of the time.
The boom we had heard was so loud it shook our windows and of course we wondered if anybody got hurt. My husband went over to see and just as he approached the property another boom went off .....dust and debris and smoke going up in the air.. The kids had run around the corner of a large shed after setting it off for some shelter and were just on their way back to inspect the "damage". Their comments had something to with "pipe bombs". My husband approached them as they were inspecting the hole in the ground. One of them had a child/infant in a carrier on his back. My husband approached them expressing concern about what they were doing. First of all he told them the explosions were so loud that they could be felt over at our place, second that anything that powerful was clearly against the law, thirdly that they were extremely dangerous, and even if they themselves were willing to risk injury, they also endangered the child he was holding. He wasnt shouting at them, or swearing, or threatening them. He was really just trying to talk some sense to them and told them not to set off any more. I think they understood and they quit. (Were they really so stupid that they thought no one would notice or care.....all our neighbors had heard it and wondered what it was).
So a few days later I was working out on the driveway and I noticed something on the ground....I thought maybe it was a bird's eggs, maybe blown out of a nest or stolen out of a nest by a crow or something....but then I noticed another one and since we are out walking every morning with the dogs I knew it hadnt been there earlier. I picked it up and showed my husband but he didnt look real closely and just figured like me that it was a egg or something. But more and more of them appeared and I finally figured it out......paint balls......so then I started to look around and noticed a trail of unbroken paint balls over in the bushes leading over to the neighbors house. There were many many smeared in our driveway and up towards our car and the area I was working in. We hadnt told the neighbors about the fireworks incident because the kids had stopped when we confronted them...but this was a little different, so we decided to talk to their dad about it when he came home from work that evening. When we went over to their property the shed and a boat and the yard were all smeared with paint balls. We explained to the dad what went on and his response was that he would just have to beat some sense into the kid......but I suggested maybe that he should TALK to him about him.....he said the kid and his family were just visiting for the week and would be gone by friday anyway.
I felt lucky that the revenge in this case was relatively harmless, more annoying than anything, but it was so senseless and could escalate if not addressed at this point.
So any opinions about this incident and any other feelings about the threat of revenge.
I had previously experienced a totally different incident that resulted in much
more devious revenge and the police, so I have a definite aversion to getting involved at all.
