Ding-Dong Doo Doo

Since we moved in we have been the target of ding-dong ditchers. I always thought it was a silly thing to do when I was a kid, but I do remember participating in it one time. As I recall, my parents were contacted by the parents of the house we ditched and I was forced to apologize. Yup; I never did it again.

So over the past 2 1/2 years, we've been ditched maybe a dozen times and usually between 9:00pm and 11:00pm. I've never caught the kids, nor had the desire to do so, so I just let it go.

Tonight I was sitting on the couch watching the sorts of shows that I can't watch with Julia around (Supernatural, in this case) as she was off at the General Relief Society broadcast. I had just gotten the kids to bed and settled in for the show. Not five minutes in, the doorbell rang. It was only 7:30pm, so I went up to check. Instead of opening the door right away, I circled around to the window and looked out to find nobody there.

Out of curiosity, I decided to wait and see what happened. About two minutes later, six boys popped up from behind a bush across the street. One of them crossed over the street cautiously, then after a few minutes retrieved a cell phone from the bushes in front of our house. He then proceeded to the neighbor's home, where he set up the phone, sneaked up to the door, rang the doorbell and took off. I watched in mild curiosity as our neighbor went outside and systematically looked around his porch, then down his driveway. I almost didn't do anything until he stopped in front of our driveway looking around for the perpetrators.

I went and got my shoes and hat and went outside to meet him. I explained what I had seen, where the kids were hiding, and I retrieved the cellphone from its hiding place. We decided that I'd take the phone and see what happened. Unfortunately, the whole conversation was being recorded and I couldn't figure out how to turn the thing off. When I got it inside, I just shut the phone off.

About a minute later, a boy was at my front door apologizing for what he had done. It was a friend of the neighbor kid. He sounded a whole lot more sorry for being caught than anything, so I decided to have a bit of fun. I thanked him for his apology and said I'll be happy to return the phone to his parents when they're available to come by.

"But they live in Herriman!"

"Then they've got a short drive ahead of them."

And he left.

Ten minutes later, I responded to another knock on the door. This time there were four of the kids on the porch. I was offered a cell phone with the curt statement "It's my dad." Apparently the guy hadn't been brought up to speed as I answered the phone and got a "Hello?" I introduced myself, explained what the guy's son had been doing and the circumstances surrounding his son's venture (e.g. we have young kids that are in bed, the neighbors are elderly and it takes them time to get to the door - not to mention one is in a wheelchair). I suggested that he have his son apologize to the neighbor as well and recommended that the ditching not occur again. I received a curt "I'll talk to the [neighbor with whom my son is staying]. It won't happen again."

Score one for the crotchety neighbor. I think this year for Halloween I'll sit on my porch and shout at the kids to get off my grass.