Teen’s father calls incident ‘regrettable’
Update: Parent of teen in prank controversy speaks
UPDATED: Homeowner charged in apparent doorbell ditch incident
Ridiculous charges against Delmar homeowner
Lawyer: Bethlehem man “terrified” before tackling teen
All the above news stories and blogs have been online. I’m sure there are more but these are the ones I’ve found so far. Twitter is going crazy talking about this story.
The basic gist of the story is – 4 local teenage boys who were having a sleepover decided to play “ding dong ditch.” In this instance the front doorbell was rang while someone pounded on the back door. The homeowner saw shadows through his windows and decided to disarm his home alarm system and run out his door and attack one of the kids. The stories say that he attacked the kid off of his property and then hauled him inside his house while he called the police. In the man’s interview he claims that he was terrified for his family.
Here’s my take on this whole thing.
- The kids should be punished by their parents.
- They are guilty of ringing a doorbell and banging on a door. (Not illegal last I checked)
People keep calling these kids “intruders.”
intransitive verb 1 : to thrust oneself in without invitation, permission, or welcome
2 : to enter as a geological intrusiontransitive verb
1 : to thrust or force in or upon someone or something especially without permission, welcome, or fitness <intruded himself into their lives>
2 : to cause to enter as if by force
— in·trud·er noun
- I would love to know what is technical trespassing. Does the law state that no trespassing signs need to be posted in order to press trespassing charges? I agree the kids were trespassing.
- These kids were NOT intruders. From all the accounts that I’ve read these kids did not vandalize anything and made NO attempt to enter the house.
- MY BIGGEST ISSUE – The homeowner states during his interviews that he was “terrified” for his family. This guys does not know TERROR! If he did he wouldn’t have ever disarmed his alarm system (as the news said he did) and opened a door. He would have kept the alarm armed and called the police. He opened the door and chased the kid while in his underwear. I wonder if he locked the door behind him?? If he DIDN’T he just put his family in danger because the other 3 kids could have entered and harmed his family if that was the true intention which I don’t believe for a minute was the intention of these boys. True terror doesn’t run towards the threat.
- After tackling the kid, the homeowner hauled him into his house and told him he’d kill him if he said one word while he called the police. IMHO – this is kidnapping. At that point the homeowner had to know it was a kid in front of him. Bringing him inside the house against his will shouldn’t have happened. Go to the door, yell to your wife to call 911, that would have made this situation a little better. Then the homeowner threatened the kid with death.
At the end of the day, the kids pulled a prank. The kid who was caught was mouthy. Kids will be kids. Ground them, and punish them severely. (Don’t go on a bad parenting tangent – none of us know how these kids will be punished) The homeowner needs to be accountable for his actions. He’s an adult. He injured a child. He intentionally threatened the child. He should have called 911 and let the police handle the situation.
Another thought to ponder – Hypothetically, if the kid didn’t get tackled, but got picked up by the police, then released and went home. If his parents hit him as punishment, everyone would be crying child abuse right now. Remember that.
I had the blog closed to comments but people thought it was because I don’t have faith in what I wrote. I do stand behind my opinion. I unlocked it so they can have their fun. I won’t be around to moderate and field comments, that’s part of the reason I was going to leave it closed. Also, I don’t want to debate or argue. If you want to read the debate, go read the 3 or 4 hour exchange on Twitter this morning. I’ve said my peace.
My blog is about my opinion. I’ve seen 100’s of people’s opinions on other sites so I know what the public masses think.
I feel like I have to leave a comment because I complained about the lack of right to do so.
IMHO, the real problem here is the kids…What are they doing out, at age 14, on a Saturday night? This is, if you ask me, the biggest problem facing our society…the inability to control, raise and mold our children.
The homeowner broke the law and should have been charged. I have faith that the DA will not prosecute and/or the jury will not convict. His actions weren’t right but they weren’t inexcusable in light of the scenario. That’s what ‘jury nullification’ is for…
However, the kids are getting off with no consequences. As children criminals who don’t commit Class A felonies always do in our society. If Parents are not going to raise their children right, then the legal system should be allowed to punish their misbehavior. That’s my opinion.
Well, tackling the kids is a bit extreme. I dunno though, the whole going around to the back door could get someone shot.
As if anyone care’s here’s my take:
1) Those pesky kids should not have been doing this in the first place:
-Ding Dong Ditch is possibly the lamest prank ever, and I’m sorry, but if you lack enough imagination to light dog doo on fire, then you got what’s comin’ to ya.
-Someone’s front door (and most certainly their back door!) are not public property, and if you don’t have business with the owner, and don’t want to piss them off then you should probably not trespass. (unless of course it is to ring the doorbell to alert them to the paper bag that “someone” left on their front porch just before it spontaneously combusted)
2) That guy was not trying to protect anything, and certainly was not afraid of anyone. He saw some kids trying to have some fun at his expense, and decided to deal out some swift justice. This earns him an official jackass trophy. I mean seriously what ever happened to shaking a broom at them as they run away while muttering things about “Damn Kids these days” under your breath.
I agree with GenWar in only one point. The kids are to blame!!! Not because they were out on a Saturday night without their mommy to hold their hand, or because they were not porperly controlled, molded, or otherwise shaped, but because they lacked the imagination to actually come up with anything clever, original, or really fun to do during their unsupervised escapade. If you are going to get in trouble (and at 14 that is pretty much inevitable) you should at least make it worth your while. I will refer back to the great Van De Graph escapade of 1995 as a reference. Good times…. good times…
I blogged about this after a recent curfew based blog for Colonie a few weeks ago, that’s still getting hits.
Today I look at the TU and find that the teen in question is Rob Madeo’s son! I am shocked to say the very least!
1) You are assuming the kid is telling the truth and the homeowner lying, since the only one that said the kid was off the property was the kid.
2) You are assuming the kid is telling the truth and the homeowner lying, since the only one that said the kid was threatened was the kid. The homeowner tackled the kid, that’s it. Don’t overdramatize. It ruins your credibility.)
3) Some people attack when threatened. My husband would do the same thing. He would want to stop the person threatening his family.
4) I may be wrong, but my guess is that you pulled pranks, and didn’t think it was a big deal. Probably didn’t get caught either. It is a big deal when it happens to you and have to deal with little children that become distressed by it.
I don’t have an issue with the kids playing ding dong ditch at the front door it’s when they go into the back door which likely has no direct light like you would have at the front door from the street lights. That’s when the threat comes in because they are lurking in a yard in the dark. To say hi kidnapped the kid is very extreme. I’d be willing to bet the kid wasn’t going to sit on the front steps until the police arrived.
Human instict takes over when you are put in a dangerous situation. We can talk about how he should have called the police but instict tells directs someone to go into protection mode. In this case he felt he was protecting his family by chasing them down.
I think the fact that the kid involved is that of Rob Madeo is drawing additional attention to it because of his reputation as a blogger. I’d be interested to hear what Paul Vandenburgh says about it when back from vacation on Monday.
The whole thing just needs to go away. Madeo needs to drop the charges and the kid and Van Plew just need to apologize.
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[…] “Be a follower OR have a following.” Your choice. They spoke about the recent “Ding Dong Ditch” incident that happened locally last week. Why did it become such a firestorm? It was a […]
Almost the same thing happens to me last night. Me and three friends were playing ding-dong-ditch (yes I know know it’s lame). We did two houses but with no such luck luck. We were nearing my home so we did on last house. No one answered. So we continued on and as we were about to knock on another house, we heard someone shout “freeze”. We looked back and saw a man, maybe in his early thirty’s, chasing us. So we started running (don’t know why, if he attacked us we would have been able to defend our selves), bad idea. He chased us a few feet/meters and caught up with me (I’m the slowest, I’m short, I’m not fat though).
I knew that he was probably going to tackle me so I moved on to some grass on the side of the street. The guy, maybe six ft. tall or a bit under, weighing an average of 160-180 lb., tackled be bring me to the ground. He proceeded to pin my arms behind my back and rolled me over on to my back. He then held me down by pressing his arms into me (just below the neck, but above the chest). Then he shouted at my face and told me that I woke him and his family up (I’m not sure if he was telling the truth because there was a light on and he was fully dressed), and that they were sick. He started shaking me and threatening me. I told him I was sorry and that I didn’t know he family was sick. He seemed to get madder and told me that I wasn’t sorry, he said a bunch of other nasty stuff and told me never to come there again cause he’d do something. He shook me one more time and walked off. Did I mention that he attack me on a hill? I am very sore now. My friends were hiding behind a car waiting to see if i was alright. And did I also mention that I did not ring the door bell? I was across the street. I’m just wondering why he attacked me. I just turned seventeen but I barely look 14. I’m around 5ft. 3” – 5ft 5″ tall and weigh 115lb – 120lb. I have a childish face, and my voice hasn’t changed much. One another friend who is 17 is about 5ft 10″ – 5ft 11″, and my two other are about 5ft 8″ – 5ft 10″. One is 16 and the other is nearly 16.
I know it was unacceptable for me and my friends to ring his door bell, but was it really acceptable for him to tackle and swear at a minor? Or even another adult for that matter? I’m a kind,m and friendly person, same with my friends. It’s my younger brother (15) who causes the most trouble. he also talks shit. he is also all talk.
I’m a nice guy, should I apologize? (not that I would).
What should I do?
Maybe mail him an apology? That way he knows you’re sincere, but has no way to contact you or threaten you further….