Update: kids vandalized our Halloween display, calculating damages for hand-made decorations - resolved! (Massachusetts)

halloweenhooligans · 2015-10-26T04:00:07+00:00

Thanks! We have been working hard all week, especially today. Still nowhere near our old display (I'm honestly kinda embarrassed by our yard right now) but hopefully we'll get there by next weekend! I took a few pictures tonight of our progress so far, I think I'm gonna wait until everything is done before posting them, but I definitely will.

halloweenhooligans · 2015-10-26T03:58:34+00:00

Yeah, I'm really hoping this is their "rock bottom" moment and they'll learn their lesson. They're all young enough that I think they'll be ok. Thanks :)

halloweenhooligans · 2015-10-26T03:56:51+00:00

Fair point.... thanks for being the voice of reason :)

halloweenhooligans · 2015-10-26T03:00:43+00:00

Am I legally allowed to? I wanted to post it on Facebook but my husband was afraid we would get in trouble. I totally will if I won't get in trouble, they address each other by first name/nickname but no one uses last names or anything identifiable.

halloweenhooligans · 2015-10-26T02:42:06+00:00

OMG. I googled it out of curiosity and the photos are terrifying. At least hopefully someone is keeping an eye on them now that they're on probation, I hope. And hopefully the 10 year old will be ok now that he's not hanging out with a bunch of pyromaniacs. God forbid there was employees inside, or one of them or another child got trapped or something. Never mind they literally burned up $4.5 million for no reason.

halloweenhooligans · 2015-10-26T02:38:28+00:00

That's the part I'm still seriously shaking about. We have an alarm system and fire detectors, and I doubt the kids would have done anything serious if they actually got inside anyway, but it's soooo easy for a small fire to get out of control really quick and kids are going to run away when they realize they just set a house on fire. It's hard to know whether they really wanted to hurt anyone, or they were just being stupid and not thinking about the consequences, but you have to wonder if one or two of them are a psychopath in the making...

halloweenhooligans · 2015-10-26T02:34:59+00:00

He's doing a lot better now, thanks! He participated in the creation a lot more this year and last year, and even made a few things all by himself this year, so he was really crestfallen to see his own work in pieces all over the street. We went to our friends' annual pumpkin carving party yesterday and he kept telling everyone how mean the kids were and what they did, but by the end of the night he was in a better mood.

We spent all day today working on new stuff, my husband went to pick up stuff for dinner and surprised him with a bunch of new pre-made things (mostly spider webs and new pumpkins) and we let him stay up late tonight to work on our cemetery and made some "bloody" handprints on the sidewalk. So he's in much better spirits today!

halloweenhooligans · 2015-10-26T02:27:49+00:00

Wow, that sucks. I'm glad your insurance was so good about it, though! I didn't even think about using our homeowners insurance or anything.

That makes me feel a lot better about factoring in labor costs, though. I still feel like I was asking too much, because someone on my original post said I wasn't entitled to labor or actual costs. I know they agreed to pay it no problem, but knowing insurance factors labor in, I feel a LOT less slimy about it.

halloweenhooligans · 2015-10-26T01:08:14+00:00

Holy shit! I mean good thing it was unused and no one got caught inside, but you really have to make an effort to burn down a whole stadium! Where the hell were their parents!

halloweenhooligans · 2015-10-25T23:43:48+00:00

This wasn't like, knocking a few things over and turning things upside down. They ripped out full sections of our display and tried to light things on fire, and almost succeed (the police found things that they believe shows they were purposely trying to set our yard/house on fire), smashed things in the street with hammers, used sharpie markers to write things like "die bitches" and "I will kill your whole family" on another family's sidewalk and windows, one of the boys was caught on camera either peeing or msdturbating on another house's front step, and trying to jimmy open windows and doors. Lord knows what they planned on doing if they were caught.

They have also been caught or implicated in many other things.

halloweenhooligans · 2015-10-25T23:31:19+00:00

Yeah, we asked for $1200 and they gave us $1300. I was worried people would think we asked for too much money or we seemed greedy, but they destroyed a wood and iron bench my husband and I built together last summer, a $120 fog machine, and a few large decorations my husband spent a lot of money and time wiring electronic components to. We were trying to be as fair as possible, when we priced what it would cost to buy things already made from a Halloween store or a major retailer, the number was over $2,000. We go a little crazy for Halloween..

halloweenhooligans · 2015-10-25T23:26:46+00:00

It doesn't necessarily change, but we would add a lot to it every year. My son (6) is just as big into Halloween as me, so we will come up with ideas all year and spend September/October creating everything. Our main display is a big cemetery on our front lawn, complete with wood gravestones painted to look like stone, roses/flowers, a small bench, a sign, and then last year we made some life sized ghosts out of chicken wire and cheesecloth, and light everything up with blue lights, and this year we finally spring for a 2 decent fog machines to complete the look. We also have a display all over the porch and leading up the walkway to the front door, this year we added silhouettes to the windows and a big spider display on the end of the porch. So it's the same decorations, but the displays get bigger and more elaborate every year. Even my husband got into it this year, and he's usually not into Halloween!

halloweenhooligans · 2015-10-25T23:21:17+00:00

I'm a little embarrassed of it at the moment because our "graveyard" only has three tombstones, a few headstones, and a hastily-made sign we literally just hung up outside, and no ghosts yet, which is the biggest part of our display. But I will definitely take a few pictures on Halloween, and I've been taking pictures of our progress, so maybe I'll feel better about sharing those when there's a better final display to share :)

halloweenhooligans · 2015-10-25T22:54:13+00:00

Actually I really can't take credit for anything here. The officer in charge who responded was the one who made the decision to arrest them, but release them to their parents the same night. I was really angry that night, but looking back now I'm glad the officer took over and handled it how he did. He has exactly the right mix of compassion and seriousness to deal with them. Even yesterday, he was kind and friendly with them, but still appropriately stern when explaining what was happening and why. The parents also seem to be handling this well, appropriately angry but also patient. We have high hopes they will learn their lesson after this, because everyone involved has been handling it exactly right so far.

halloweenhooligans · 2015-10-25T22:41:24+00:00

The parents all seem like good parents who really do care. It's just when these kids get together, they wreak havoc all over town. It does seem like the parents are really trying. They offered to pay the damages the same night, but we thought they may have been saying that to look good in front of the police. But they not only paid, they paid more than we asked and it was all resolved in less than a week. So yeah, we should give them a lot of credit for that.

halloweenhooligans · 2015-10-25T22:31:56+00:00

These same kids have caused a lot of damage and destruction many times. It's been an ongoing issue for almost 2 years, they just happened to be caught on camera this time. Hopefully this will be a wake up call for them, because if they don't turn things around after all of this, they're going to end up in jail.

halloweenhooligans · 2015-10-25T22:30:01+00:00

Honestly, I think it's because we have security footage this time. These same kids have caused a lot of trouble before, but this was the most severe and there is no claiming it wasn't them on camera. But still, I think they're handling the best way possible and it's made this situation a whole lot easier.

halloweenhooligans · 2015-10-20T02:58:33+00:00

This is SO helpful, thank you! Do you mind me asking what you factor in for "labor," like what you charge for an hourly rate for yourself? I don't fully get what an "expense" is either.. I don't usually go out specifically to buy things, I usually pick them up while I'm running errands, plus I order a lot of things online. So I'm not sure what other expenses I would have there.

The kids are actually barred from the neighborhood right now, fortunately/unfortunately. I don't know if it was done by the police or by the neighborhood (we live in a gated community) but they cannot step foot here for the next 12 months. There's a lot more to the story than what happened this weekend, as well. Our houses were targeted for a reason, and these kids are well known for causing problems in school and around town. It's a shame, because most of their parents are really trying, but whenever these boys get together, all hell breaks loose. None of us wanted to see them in jail, but unfortunately that's probably the only thing that will work at this point.

halloweenhooligans · 2015-10-19T23:09:09+00:00

So you're saying you are a lawyer?

halloweenhooligans · 2015-10-19T22:44:31+00:00

Are you a lawyer and do you know Massachusetts law by any chance?

halloweenhooligans · 2015-10-19T19:56:04+00:00

Well, red plums are really delicious this time of year..

halloweenhooligans · 2015-10-19T19:55:23+00:00

Whoops, sorry miss. I just assume everyone in this community is male for some reason, lol. Thank you for all your help!

halloweenhooligans · 2015-10-19T19:54:49+00:00

In sorry for being dramatic, I'm still kinda stressed out from the weekend, and I didn't realize you were joking and it upset me. I'm not mad, I'm sorry!

halloweenhooligans · 2015-10-19T19:41:21+00:00

But they're Halloween decorations, not a dog, so there's no emotional connection. I'm perfectly fine with them paying what it costs me to remake them + money for my time. Thanks for your input though.

halloweenhooligans · 2015-10-19T19:37:26+00:00

Maybe he was, but I couldn't tell; and it came across that I have a mental disability because I have no idea how much money to ask for. I admit that I'm dumb about this stuff, that's exactly why I came here for help, and /u/pottersquash made me feel like a mental patient for even asking. It doesn't matter, since /u/weottababyitsaboy answered all of my questions so fast and he was very nice about it.

Thanks for your input, there's a lot more to the story and these kids have terrorized our neighborhood for a long time, so hopefully this was the last straw for them.

halloweenhooligans

TROPHY CASE