Ok..so this is probably going to be a long story, but I am at kind of a loss as to what to do. I'm REALLY sorry for such a long post but I want to give all the info.

I will warn some that it is a bit graphic later.

Overall, my BF and I live in a nice neighborhood with old people but two houses down is a house packed with not so nice people. There are at least 10 people living in this house, with 7 dogs or more. Some of you may have remember a post of mine about a pack of loose dogs in someone's thread and this is where they are coming from for the most part. A girl that lives there works at my job and tells me the dogs use the house as a bathroom because no one takes them out and I believe this because the ONLY time you see the dogs at all is when they get out, they are never outside. They are very aggressive and dangerous.

Anyway, there are 5 kids living there and a baby. Three of those kids are around the age of 12-14 and are absolute punks. A neighbor who knows the father there tells me they break into homes they are supposed to mow for, they terrorized the old lady across the street from me by breaking her fence and beating on her windows and door at 3am and scaring her to death because she already had a man mowing her lawn when they wanted money to do it. She is a close friend of my fathers and told him this. They cuss like drunks and it is painful to hear and are always screaming at each other. We also caught them denting up the side of my neighbors shed with rocks. My car tires had been slashed when I first moved in about three times and I bought a motion sensor light and began parking my car close to the house and haven't been unlucky again yet.

I want to add that their father is a drunk and threatened to beat the church bus driver for saying he couldn't take them anymore because of their attitude and language.

The thing they are doing now is the last straw for me. Yesterday they spent 4 hours out there with a pellet gun about 5 different yards-including that poor old lady's- killing birds. In the time we actually stood there and watched they had shot numerous birds and were piling them into a sled tied to a bike so no one saw them carrying them around and were mutilating them in their driveway. We had walked by with the dogs earlier and saw piles of feathers and wondered about it-now I know what it was.

Well I called the police when I saw them kicking one that wasn't dead but hurt and they were telling it to "get going" and picked the poor thing up and tore handfuls of feathers out and let it drop and try to run again. It made my stomach turn, it was sick. This happening in the old lady's lot next to the alley and out of sight from most.

The kids know what they are doing, they have one kid on lookout and they pitch the gun and hide whenever a car or person gets near. We watched them do it and we watched the cops come and told the lady on the phone where they ran. The cop turned the wrong away and they got into another neighbors yard ( with equal rep )and sat on their back steps. The kid with the gun had a bright orange shirt and as if he knew I told the police this he took it off immediately and hid it. The gun was no where to be found. I saw it all happen from my front door. The cop finally questioned them when I called back and said he was the one without a shirt but what else could he do? I wasn't about to go out there and let them know it was me who called because I fear for my property and rabbits. We have bird feeders galore out back..it's only a matter of time before they get bored enough in my opinion.

I am at a loss as to what we can do about this? They were at it again today and we got to see the cops drive up and them act casual and get away all over again. Someone suggested we record them doing it..My BF says they are kids, they can't touch them anyway. Maybe child care services since I know they live in dog feces?

I feel helpless and it is sad to have to wonder when we're going to come home to our home broken into or our rabbits killed in their cages out back..

Thats got to be one of the worse neighbor stories ever. I would video tape everything, turn it in to police anonymously. And I would call child services asap! Its a terrible situation all around. I hope you stay safe from these people and their kids.

Wow...that's a horrible situation. Video-record it all if you can do so safely. I agree that child protective services should be called. I would also call somebody like animal control about the animals. Animal abuse (the birds) and neglect (the dogs) are illegal, and the dogs can be removed. This would benefit everyone IMHO. I might also consider finding a place indoors for the rabbits (can they live indoors?) and think about investing in a security system.

Still, I would seriously consider moving, especially if you rent.

Erin hit the nail on the head. Video their activities. They won't be able to argue when confronted with a video of their actions.

People who are willing to torture and mutilate animals are very, very dangerous folks to live around. If you have options, I would consider using them as soon as possible. And I would also definitely notify any and all authorities. If any other neighbors witnessed the same event, perhaps you don't have to video anything (although a good idea if you can do it without being seen) but can use their "testimony" as well. If you know if the elderly woman has any other family members, you may want to notify them of the situation in which their mother, grandmother, etc... is living near. I would suspect she is especially vulnerable.

Definately child protective services.

Do they own the house or rent? If renters I would contact the landlord.

Whew...what a bad situation.

Ditto on video taping. Ditto on contacting CPS and notifying the cops every single time something occurs. Be polite but be very firm and be persistent.

If either both of you, or one of you, rent contact the landlord(s) by phone AND in writing. Use the phrase "I feel threatened and I'm worried about my safety." Those are the buzz words you want to keep repeating every time you report an incident. If the kids are at all pointing the gun in the direction of your house...even the tiniest bit...you need to say "They are pointing a gun at my house and I feel threatened..."

You need to make this about you and your safety, not what you're afraid they might do to your birds and rabbits.

I disagree that nothing can be done because they are kids.

Unfortunately, if you are unwilling to be a witness in any potential case (Juvie or otherwise), there is not much the cops can do - even with a video tape. Part of the problem is the tape would need to be authenticated in court which would mean that you would have to testify that you recorded it.

I would recommend calling CPS and taking the angle of the baby being in a house that is likely to be unsanitary due to the animals. Another thought is adult protective services if the elderly woman is being taken advantage of by this family.

I would also keep a log of all your observations of what the kids are doing in case it does come to a court case down the road.

This story really bothers me because it is all too common. It is a case of it not being bad enough that anyone can/will do much about it, and bad enough that people and animals are being harassed and are in danger.

First question, has anybody talked to the parents or the person you say you work with? Can anything be done using that route? Maybe if there were a few concerned neighbors that all asked the adults of the home to help with the problem you could solve some of it… IF asking nicely does not help, tell them you are feeling threatened and unsafe and really don’t want to involve the police and DA’s office…

My SO, Rob, is a detective. On the way back from dropping the kids off at school, I told him about this story, and asked him what could be done. He said nothing. If the police are called, the best they can do is contact them and counsel them for malicious behavior. Prove that they have done some of the more serious crimes, killing the birds, robbing homes, slashing tires, and there could be cruelty charges, burglary charges, and vandalism, but you need real proof, not just accurate speculations. The rest, throwing rocks and kicking fences is delinquent behavior that will get nothing more than a slap on the wrist.

In our area, CPS will not do much if the kids are fed, have a roof over their heads and there is no evidence of abuse. They are an overworked and understaffed agency that have too many cases of babies being killed and other child abuse to worry too much about dogs crapping in a house (and I am not trying to make light of it, I would die before our kids were in that situation).

He said that if he were called out in this situation, he would (and has) called code compliance. Most cities have codes dictating the number of dogs allowed on one property. They also have codes about health and sanitation, fire hazards, extension cords, etc. They can issue huge fines (in the thousands here) for these types of violations.

If these people are on government assistance, they too have rules and restrictions about many things.

Starting a paper trail with government agencies will only help your case.

Bottom line is, you have to PROVE that they did it by pictures and video (can you get video surveillance up?) and, like Ingrid said, be willing to authenticate it (although Rob said this will never get to trial, because it would likely be settled to the probation department.) The police can do nothing for most of what you have described, as they are minors, but if you can prove it, the parents can be eventually charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor…

We too have a similar horror story. My mom got new neighbors (renters) who within 4 weeks had left 2 gallon sized zip-lock bags full of cigarette butts on her lawn, had three different people walk into my mom’s house “on accident” (they are attached town homes with a shared walkway), had band practice every night until 11:00PM (the cut off around here for noise complaints), woke her up on four different occasions at three in the morning having drunken screaming matches in the street, dropped two crack pipes in her planters while walking through them, (prove that one&hellip, and used up all of the visitor parking areas with their friends cars who are “visiting”, vomited in her yard on more than on occasion in the afternoon…

We collected every butt (a necessity when you have a two year old and a puppy that pick everything up), took pictures of cars, called the police for noise complaints despite the hour (helpful when they are your friends) and documented, took pictures of them vomiting on Mom’s yard, set up video surveillance, etc, and filed complaints with the HOA and the landlord, including mailing all of the “litter” until they took action. Took months… But now they have chilled.

Good luck, and be careful. It sounds like this will have to be a community endeavor...

I want to echo what everyone else has already suggested.

In addition to trying to video tape behaviors, keep a detailed log of everything you observe, date and time, parties involved, etc.

If you hear yelling/fighting, note that.
If the dogs get loose, note that.
If you see vehicles coming and going at odd hours, note that.

Also keep a log of all your contacts with Law Enforcement, CPS, Animal Control, etc.

Try talking to your other neighbors, see if you can get them to call as often as you do. Explain that it takes multiple complaints from multiple households to get things to change.

If ALL else fails, see if you can get enough neighbors to bring it up at a City Council meeting.