Remember the backyard in your 'hood that swallowed Frisbees whole? Where perfectly good footballs would have to languish because you were too afraid of the curmudgeonly homeowner to retrieve them? Your mom said the kid-killing neighbor was just urban legend, but an 11-year-old shot for playing on a lawn in Cleveland, Ohio this week is bound to scare a whole new generation of kids out of claiming their pigskins from the lawn of the creepy guy up the street.
Charles DuBose is in jail after he allegedly decided the best way to remind little Ivhan'e Merritt and a pal that they were playing too close to his car was to warn them with his shotgun. A bullet grazed Merrit's liver, but she's been released from the hospital and is on the way to recovery (thank goodness).
Which leaves DuBose. And a new urban legend in the making. Scary guy doesn't just hack up little children and eat them with fava beans if they get in the backyard. He shoots them right out in the open!
The funny thing about adulthood is that you start to understand the "get offa my lawn" mentality. Everyone's sue happy these days, and being responsible for the safety of someone else's minor child is stressful. I don't like to host playdates for my own daughter's friends unless I know the other kid's parents well enough to know they aren't going to freak if their kid gets stung by a bee in the normal course of playing in the yard.
It doesn't explain that kook from 25 years ago with the dark windows who made weird noises when the kids walked by, does it? Oh well, it sure makes me feel a little less "old," when I look at the neighborhood brats inching ever closer to that patch of grass outside the house and I start planning where to hang that wiffle ball in my shed. Where is my Metamucil?
Kids don't belong on other people's property. But come on! They're kids. They wander. And whatever happened to that whole "it takes a village" mentality? Heck, whatever happened to talking? Even an old-fashioned "get offa my lawn" from the old woman in her curlers with the bathrobe flapping worked.
You think the sue happy people jump the gun? Consider an ex-Marine named Charles DuBose who went running for his literal gun when an 11-year-old stepped too close to his car. With real flesh and blood guys like him out there, who needs legends?
Was there a creepy neighbor in your 'hood? What kinds of things did the kids think they were up to? Anything like this?
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Comments 8
What a nut! Yeah, kids should be taught to stay out of other people's yards (and I do teach my kids this), but they do stray anyway. It's insane to shoot a child for any reason. I'm glad she is going to be okay and I hope he gets a stiff penalty.
OT, but what's up with those names???
Well, that will teach ya to stay out of people's yards.
He's a nut and it's NOT ok to shoot at kids. But kids today are little assholes so someone needs to do something.
There is an old lady who is always complaining about the kids play in the street. She came home one day while I was out front(I can see the whole street from my house) and the kids ran to the sidewalk and the lady ran over the sidewalk almost hitting the kids. She then came over to me and complained to me about the kids being in the street. I told her that yes the kids were in the street but they ran to the sidewalk when she pulled up and that I saw her run over the sidewalk and almost hit the kids. She complained to me and my husband because we are on our HOA board. Well after that she stopped complaining about it.
thats nothing! Last week right up the street from me, a 67 yr old man stabbed a 17 yr old in the abdomen and sliced a 16 yr old's arm while they were doing yardwork for him. He accused the kids of stealing a laptop that was on the table behind the old guy! And to boot, the neighbor of the old guy told the police that she had been keeping a 6 yr file on the guy. He trimmed his trees down so he could purposely look into this woman's bedroom window. There are creepy and downright dangerous people everywhere. We just have to be more aware of the people around us!
oh wow. this is just creepy. and the guy who stabbed two kids doing yardwork for him? yikes
I remember once when I was a kid, I got my kite stuck in my next door neighbour's tree.. I went to try to retrieve it... and he comes out hollaring and screaming at me to get off his yard. Dude... I just wanted to get my kite back. The weird thing was that he was usually nice and my parents were friends with him and his wife. Not sure why he blew up on me for...