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.
