Posted on 08/27/2007 9:55:17 PM PDT by Graybeard58
ROGUE RIVER, Ore. (AP) The three teenagers in hooded black outfits were scampering over rooftops, climbing trees "just like a squirrel," and breaking into houses and cars, police said.
But they weren't quite so slick as their Japanese ninja heroes.
Earlier this summer, an officer chased one of the wannabes across a school rooftop, but the youth leaped into a nearby tree, said Police Chief Ken Lewis.
Breaking branches on the way down, "he gave a yelp of pain," and then he scrambled away, Lewis said.
Last week, after months of investigation, police arrested three teens, two 15 and one 16, and seized stolen jewelry, burglary tools, a map of the city and several black ninja suits with hoods and climbing spikes.
The parents of one told police their son complained of an injury about the time of the rooftop chase, Lewis said.
"I believe that's our roof-gliding ninja," said Lewis.
Lewis said one of the three indicated they had been active for a year and a half, and the pranks escalated from flights across rooftops and petty vandalism.
Lewis said the teenagers used a stolen credit card to buy, online, costumes and equipment such as hand-climbing spikes, metal throwing stars and utility belts.
Police got their first clue to the activity seven months ago, Lewis said, when an anonymous caller referred to the ancient Japanese martial arts masters trained for covert operations and assassinations.
"He wanted to know if it was OK for his kid to dress up in a ninja costume and run around in the middle of the night and climb on top of roofs," said Lewis. "We told him that would be both dangerous and illegal. We never heard from him again."
The teens created a MySpace page, and other teens have been blogging on it about the arrests, which may lead to other suspects, Lewis said.
"It's true what they say about MySpace," said Lewis. "It's a great investigative tool."
Only in Oregon
A game that three of us would play in my teens was called stalking moon.
We would go to the most jungle like area by Buffalo Bayou ( Houston) that I knew of, we would each take one gallon of wine, melt into the foliage and track each other until sunup.
Now that I look back at it, it seems incredibly dangerous to be moving silently through the jungle like woods, sometimes swimming back and forth across the bayou
Southerners know about the water moccasins, coral snakes, rattlers, copperheads, and we even had caught a small alligator there once.
It also doesn’t seem like much fun to spend the entire night alone, moving in the dark, without flashlights (we didn’t own any) looking for a chance to ambush a buddy, which sometimes never happened.
I think that young males may be different than young females, but I may be wrong.
Riiight! You each had a gallon of wine and you want us to believe you were stalking each other??? ;-)
We would stalk through the La Mirada Country Club golf course at night. Once we had the Los Angeles County Sheriff helicopter looking for us, but we snuck from tree to tree and he couldn’t spot us, even with his search light.
One night we were so bored, we built stilts and walked around the course on them.
Never ran across any alligators, LOL!
OMG! Illegal possession of cartographic equipment.
Police got their first clue to the activity seven months ago... [from] an anonymous caller ...
"He wanted to know if it was OK for his kid to dress up in a ninja costume and run around in the middle of the night and climb on top of roofs," said Lewis. "We told him that would be both dangerous and illegal. We never heard from him again."
?!? You can't make this stuff up!
young males? we’ve done that at deer camp a number of times.
ride the beater truck around til its stuck, start drinking, then chase around the woods with no flashlight trying to find our way back.
http://www.amazon.com/Stalking-Moon-Gregory-Peck/dp/B000QRI1GW
This is the movie that I took the game from, in the movie there is an Apache warrior tracking Gregory Peck, who has taken the Indians captive/slave wife and son. I don’t think you ever actually see the Apache (except for quick glances of an arm or leg), but his effectiveness and skill starts to chill you to the bone. This was one of Pecks favorite films.
This is one of those excellent, little forgotten films, keep an eye out for it, but keep an eye on your teenage sons.
Sounds like a case for these guys - they're also tackling cases such as these.
I used to spend the entire night alone, moving in the dark, without a flashlight, looking for a chance to ambush a young female.
Does that count?
“”young males? weve done that at deer camp a number of times.
ride the beater truck around til its stuck, start drinking, then chase around the woods with no flashlight trying to find our way back.””
I know that game, it led me to spend the night in a place that wasn’t my tent, without a sleeping bag in 25 degrees in the Laguna Mountains. Believe or not, the booze helped me to create the scenario that I was deliberately setting up for myself, as a little situation test.
At least I think I did it on purpose.
“I used to spend the entire night alone, moving in the dark, without a flashlight, looking for a chance to ambush a young female.”
We hunt, in the search for prey to impale.
Same here, my buddies and I didn’t have a lot of sense when we were younger.
I used to live in Rogue River. I now am 7 miles from the town still using the PO box there for 9 years.
I would have paid to watch the Police officers chase these kids around when I lived there
Population around 2000 souls. Most of whom are very nice people.
Sports are big there and the kids are serious players and hold some great wins. Other than sports and church activities there is little for the kids to do around town, so the kids get very bored that are not into sports and Church activities.
Not even an arcade or bowling alley to hang out at. Just the old folks community center and a few restaurants that would rather not have the young people around.
There was a small restaurant (when I lived there) that held Friday night dances for the kids with religious bands only allowed.
The politics and controversy with the Police Dept/City Council for control are on par with the Keystone Cops per my friends who still live there.
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Rogue River.....wow, what a blast from the past. I bought my very first car from a friend of my father’s, who lived in Rogue River.
1964 1/2 Mustang. Three speed on the column, no synchro in first gear, all beat-up. In 1973 we didn’t know that it was a valuable collector’s item.
Well...all righty then.
That is about right... Try Gold Hill for the same...
The "good ol' boys" should have died off long ago.
Perhaps the ground water could be a tin foil hat explanation for local politics. ;)
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