A little justice...

**TellyDSP** · 08-01-2006, 03:48 PM

I know there have been a few threads lately about people having crap happen to them or their vehicles, and whether or not it was worth persuing. Understandably, the question was raised multiple times as to whether doing your own investigation and turning over the evidence would lead to any police action. Well I came accross this just now, and felt like sharing. IMO, the penalty is well worth it. Pranks are one thing, but when you ruin the finish of two cars, you deserve to get your *** handed to you.

Quote:

Nobody TPs my lawn and gets away with it!

NORCO, Calif. - Teenagers who toilet-papered and damaged a home now face felony vandalism charges because of a mother's extraordinary sleuthing.

Katja Base, mother of six, was unwilling to let the teens get away with it, saying she tracked them down to teach her kids about accountability.

Base awoke one February morning to find her front lawn strewn in white two-ply toilet paper. She and husband Ken also found damaged landscaping and light fixtures as well as ruined finishes on two cars.

Dog food and flour also covered the lawn.

Realizing the sheriff's department has better things to do than track down teen pranksters, Katja Base decided to do some detective work.

"There needs to be accountability," she said. "Mainly, I pursued this as a lesson for my daughters. I don't want them to ever come to me and ask why I didn't do anything about this."

The tale of the register tape
Base persuaded supermarket managers to tally daily toilet-paper buys for the week and a Stater Bros. manager said there was a run on bathroom tissue two days before her home was vandalized.

At 7:30 p.m. Feb. 17, someone bought 144 rolls of toilet paper, cheese, dog food, flour and plastic forks, the same items found on her lawn and house. It was a cash transaction, making it difficult to trace the purchaser, but the store had video surveillance.

Let's go to the videotape
The video showed four teenagers making the purchase, one of them wearing a Norco High School letterman's jacket with a name stitched across the back. The store's parking lot surveillance camera showed the truck they were using.

Base then borrowed a Norco High yearbook and used online databases to get the name, phone numbers and addresses of the teens on the store tape.

"Her work was instrumental in helping us to identify the suspects," said Lt. Ross Cooper of the Riverside County Sheriff's Department.

The information was eventually sent to the district attorney's office and prosecutors confirmed that about six youths were now facing vandalism charges. However, they would not release details of the case or names of the defendants because they are juveniles.

The maximum penalty for the adult would be three years in prison; the juveniles could face probation and restitution, district attorney's office spokeswoman Ingrid Wyatt said.

© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Bhelliom · 08-01-2006, 03:52 PM

Wow.. good on her.. but that is a LOT of work that I couldn't be bothered going through

And if they damaged property or cars they deserve what they get... .

WhtJeep · 08-01-2006, 04:14 PM

Man i would have gotten in SOOOOO much trouble as a kid. We tp'd so many houses, but we never floured the lawn or destroyed cars. Just harmless fun on our friends.

Bhelliom · 08-01-2006, 04:19 PM

That was kinda my point.... harmless fun is one thing.. everyone did it... but there's a fine line.. and they stepped over it

**Bgeddes** · 08-01-2006, 04:20 PM

Quote:

Man i would have gotten in SOOOOO much trouble as a kid. We tp'd so many houses, but we never floured the lawn or destroyed cars. Just harmless fun on our friends.

Ditto, we never ruined anything. Just TP in the trees and on the bushes. 99% of the time it was someone we knew, and they knew who did it (small town stuff), so we ended cleaning the yard we did, or cleaning our own in the next few weeks.

POLBOSS · 08-01-2006, 04:22 PM

Not trying to infer anything but the offbeat news always come from the AP and they always involve, towns you never heard of

chim · 08-01-2006, 05:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by POLBOSS

Not trying to infer anything but the offbeat news always come from the AP and they always involve, towns you never heard of

Here's another (UPI). A quick search came up with several hits................chim

http://www.politicalgateway.com/news/read/27975

POLBOSS · 08-01-2006, 05:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chim

Here's another (UPI). A quick search came up with several hits................chim

http://www.politicalgateway.com/news/read/27975

The AP sells the stories and news agencies print them as they receive them.

POLBOSS · 08-01-2006, 05:41 PM

Yet another AP offbeat news, http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/08/01/bar.id.ap/index.html

**ErikJordan** · 08-01-2006, 06:06 PM

all kids TP. to ruin the cars paint is a different story though.
hell, we were TP'd 4 days in a row! it was a real pain in the *** to deal with but i wouldnt think of arresting the little bastards for doing it.
i'm sure my kids do it as well, and would certainly hope other parents arent gooing to have them arrested for it.
this has been going on for generations.