The driveway camera yet again provides an entertaining story about four not bright teenagers, my awesome bad ass neighbor, a crazy momma, and the Olalla Facebook group’s power of community.

Driveway Alert with four boys walking up the driveway

8/18/2016 Four eighteen plus or minus a year-old boys decided it was a good idea to walk down out ¼ mile long driveway with no trespassing signs posted. They walked around the house and looked in the windows and knocked on the door while we were away from home. Their mothers claim they were innocently looking for a trail through to another road. Luckily we don’t know otherwise because my neighbor is a complete bad ass. We were at Gymnastics when I received the driveway alert. I instantly checked the other cameras and sure enough the kids walked all the way up the driveway after laughing at, waving at, and flipping off the cameras.

Kids scared away

I texted the neighbors asking them to pretty please go ask the kids to leave, less than a minute later I received an ” on it” response back. I’m totally freaking out at gymnastics about 20 minutes from home thinking the kids are going to rob the place. I ran out to the car and used a stern control voice at Michelle asking her to get out of the car where she was feeding the Roxi, so I could race home to try to do something. Watching the camera while getting into the car I didn’t have too. Neighbor hauled ass up the driveway came to a stop inches from the boys in the driveway. Opened the door before the car stopped. Erupted from the car with unlimited anger and tenacity and demanded the boys leave immediately.

One of the kids took off running into the woods. It took neighbor and his son a minute to find him and shoo him down the road to his friends waiting at the end of the driveway for him. Neighbor followed them to the end of the driveway where he sat and watched the boys walk back down to the end of the street. I watched in the camera until the boys walked around the corner at the end of the street. Then spent the next hour coming down from the adrenaline rush at the possibility of being robbed again. Such a massive invasion of personal property and safety that triggers all of the past feelings from being robed – took a long while to calm down.

Olalla Community Power

I posted the Picture of four boys waving at the camera to our Olalla community Facebook page and asked if anyone could provide me names and contacts from the parents. Less than an hour later I had names of four of the boys and parents contacts for two of them. Three of them have the same last name and look to be related. One of the mothers was joking with me and great to deal with. She claimed kids be stupid and sorry will not happen again. Perfect Answer. The other mother threatens to called the cops on me for posting pictures of her kids in public, and claimed I was not being neighborly because kids were bored and there is nothing else to do but walk around in the woods in Olalla.

Crazy Mother thinking I was in the wrong

I responded to her with “no, the cops would not be at my door because the pictures I took were taken in public, and on my private property, which is completely legal“. I also defined how I see a key to being neighborly as respecting other people’s property. Somewhere in the thread I responded with “Yes your kids are not allowed to wonder around as they please on private property” –another response was “I am glad your children were scared when my neighbor confronted them. Maybe the fear will help them learn. Imagine the fear a mother of 4 kids under 6, whose been robbed before at this house, would be feeling when four boys all bigger than her randomly wonder up the driveway and look in the windows. Our house is far enough from other houses neighbors don’t hear screams.”

At this point crazy mother seemed to think her kids being bored was excuse enough and then felt the need to threaten to find pictures of our kids and post them where ever she could to obtain revenge. Things were going downhill super-fast; the community was starting to rage on this woman for being a complete dumb ass. I responded back one more time Telling her “I was sorry she felt the need to threaten, that she was picked on, and that I felt she was not dealing this properly. A sorry we messed up won’t happen again might be better approach. I never called the cops like I should have I simply wanted to know what was up and let the kids know this was not acceptable. Then I added a picture of me and the kids and told her if it made her feel better she was welcome to use the picture however she wanted.”

From there things got much worse and I felt the best course of action was deleting the thread and ending the abuse this woman was experiencing. It was entertaining to watch the drama, but it was not helping anyone in a positive manour, and my mission had been accomplished. Crazy mother lives in a house we walk past on our walks, so I’m sure that will be fun once she does math and notices us. See feels like the type who enjoys creating drama and conflict.

My take aways, thoughts –

• We owned the land for four years there has never been a trail here in that time – when we bought it there were no trials at all everything was raw land.
• We have no trespassing signs up and cameras – what part of that says come down and knock on my door and we’ll invite you for milk and cookies?
• It’s the future, I am sure all of the kids have smart phones with GPS and aerial satellite pictures clearly showing things end at my house and all around are other houses / no roads without going through other people’s yard.
• Defending your kid’s stupid actions with threats is not a great idea. Sorry will not happen again is a much better response
• We have plenty do in Olalla, banner forest is 650 acres of trails, School timber land is 350 acres of tails, Anderson park is trails and water front, Al’s boat launch, Dog park on Bandix, to name a few of the PUBLIC lands where kids can explore in the woods.