Neighbor twice called police over pranksters (teen prankster)

The Palm Beach Post ^ | Tuesday, October 28 | Dani Davies, Jane Musgrave and Pamela Pérez

[lifacs]

Tuesday, October 28

Neighbor twice called police over pranksters

By Dani Davies, Jane Musgrave and Pamela Pérez, Palm Beach Post Staff Writers Tuesday, October 28, 2003

Saturday wasn't the first time pranksters targeted Jay Levin.

Three years ago, his suburban Boca Raton home was shot with paint balls that left holes in two front windows, according to a Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office report. A year later, he reported a small hole in the bedroom window of his Woodbury Road house.

Just after midnight Friday, Levin shot back.

Mark Drewes, a Pope John Paul II High School student whose family lives several houses down from Levin on Woodbury Road, had celebrated his 16th birthday at a party with family and friends Friday night. At about 12:30 a.m. Saturday, Drewes and a friend ended up at Levin's house, where they tied fishing line to his door knocker and hid in the bushes, a neighbor said.

"When Levin heard knocking, he armed himself with a handgun and answered the door," according to a sheriff's report.

Levin, 40, told investigators that when he opened the door, he saw Drewes standing there. He said he was frightened and thought Drewes had something in his hand that might have been a weapon.

Levin fired one shot, hitting Drewes, who ran into a neighbor's yard and collapsed in the grass. His friend frantically pounded on the doors of Levin's sleeping neighbors for help.

Drewes died a short time later at Delray Medical Center.

Levin, an accountant who lives alone, has not been arrested while authorities investigate because he is not considered a flight risk, sheriff's spokeswoman Diane Carhart said Monday.

By next week, investigators are expected to turn over to the Palm Beach County State Attorney's Office the taped 911 call of Levin reporting the shooting, she said.

"This is still an open investigation," Carhart said. "We want to make sure all the facts are correct before we turn it into the state attorney's office."

Attorney Bob Montgomery, hired Monday by Drewes' family, said the teen's relatives are so distraught that they have gone into seclusion. As far as he knows, they did not know Levin before the shooting, Montgomery said.

A private investigator who said he was hired by Levin's attorney chatted with neighbors Monday afternoon. Reached by phone, Levin declined comment and did not identify his attorney.

One neighbor who asked not to be named said she was struggling to understand Levin's actions.

"You know he didn't set out to shoot a 16-year-old prankster," she said. "It's one in the morning. You shouldn't be ringing doorbells."

Since the shooting, Levin's home has become the focal point of a candlelight vigil and a steady stream of teenage mourners. On Monday, candles and crushed flowers littered the sidewalk outside of his home. His green aluminum mailbox had been smashed.

On the lawn of another house across the street, a cross, flowers and candles marked the spot where Drewes collapsed near a tree.

Pope John Paul students drove by, stopping there to pray intermittently. Seniors Brandon Fustanio, Sean Beckett, John Siikarla and junior Tyler Bloechinger wandered over to gaze at Levin's front door. All four said they felt angry that Levin shot their classmate over "a harmless prank."

"Everybody's done it," Siikarla said. "Something like this shouldn't have happened to someone like him."

Levin should have called police or fired a warning shot, they said.

"I don't know what happened to him in his past to make him feel like this, but it's no excuse," Fustanio said.

It was March 2000 when Levin complained that he had been awakened around 1 a.m. by popping noises outside of his window, according to an investigator's report. He told deputies he saw what looked like a young, white man running away. The next morning, he discovered two holes in two windows. A deputy found yellow paint around the holes as well as three other yellow marks on the front of the house and concluded Levin had been the target of a paint-ball attack.

In February 2001, he called deputies again when he discovered a small hole in his bedroom window.

Mike Sedgwick, a Palm Beach County firefighter who lives on the street, posted signs in his yard to express his disgust.

"The guy should be in jail," he said.

Despite his neighbor's venom, there is nothing in court or public records to suggest Levin is anything but an average citizen. He was cited twice for speeding between 1986 and 1996. He was in two car crashes -- one of which was his fault. He hasn't been arrested for any crime in Florida, according to state records.

He has had a permit to carry a concealed weapon since 1993. He had his permit renewed for five years in 1999. State law doesn't require people to reveal what kind of weapons they have.

Drewes had planned to try out for his school's soccer team Monday. Instead, the teen was mourned with a shrine of flowers at the school. Students remembered the sophomore during a day-long open prayer service at the school chapel.

"Today was a very sad day," said the Rev. Guy Fiano, president of the high school. "There were many broken hearts."

Funeral services for Drewes are scheduled at 5 p.m. Wednesday in St. Jude Catholic Church, 21689 Toledo Road. Classmates will plan a special memorial service for Drewes after the funeral.

School officials enlisted the help of a crisis management team to provide counseling for students. Parents on the Spiritual Life Committee also convened an emergency prayer service.

"There was an outpouring of love," said Patti Hughes, committee co-chairman. "The kids were awesome. It was an amazing witness to God's love."

dani_davies@pbpost.com

[AppyPappy]

OK, was he shot in the back or not?

[eno_]

Anyone pulling stunts on my property at 1am will probably leave in a bag.

[Chancellor Palpatine]

As predicted.

Just an addition of chlorine to the gene pool as far as I'm concerned.

[Chancellor Palpatine]

Pope John Paul students drove by, stopping there to pray intermittently. Seniors Brandon Fustanio, Sean Beckett, John Siikarla and junior Tyler Bloechinger wandered over to gaze at Levin's front door. All four said they felt angry that Levin shot their classmate over "a harmless prank."

"Everybody's done it," Siikarla said. "Something like this shouldn't have happened to someone like him."

Levin should have called police or fired a warning shot, they said.

Hows about praying that no one does anything so stupid ever again, and that the school actually start drilling in some notion of how to be neighborly for a change?

[lifacs]

I've only heard the family say he was shot in the back.

[CobaltBlue]

The article seems to suggest that the dead child was responsible for all the pranking, and that the homeowner was fed up.

But there appear to be a lot of kids in the neighborhood.

Our house has been egged a couple of times and tp'ed a couple of times, and I have no idea who did it. It doesn't really even bother me.

We have a lot of guns. It would never cross my mind to answer the door at midnight Friday with a gun. I'd turn on the light, and look out the window, and see if I recognized the person, and if I didn't, I wouldn't open the door. If I felt menaced, I'd pick up the phone and dial 911.

The guy who did this should fry.

[marktwain]

"Everybody's done it," Siikarla said. "Something like this shouldn't have happened to someone like him."

No, not everybody wakes people up at 1 am, then makes threatening gestures when they answer the door.

I never did.

Didn't this kid ever read a Lois Lamore novel? You know, where it is spelled out that you don't sneak up on someone's campfire without announcing yourself, because you might get shot?

It is a tragedy, but the young man clearly made horrible mistakes that led to his death.

[Agnes Heep]

In my opinion what happened is no different than the tragic consequences of any of a number of stupid, dangerous teenage pranks. A very unfortunate occurrence. Nothing more. Let's get on with life.

[laredo44]

At about 12:30 a.m. Saturday, Drewes and a friend ended up at Levin's house, where they tied fishing line to his door knocker and hid in the bushes, a neighbor said.

"When Levin heard knocking, he armed himself with a handgun and answered the door," according to a sheriff's report.

Levin, 40, told investigators that when he opened the door, he saw Drewes standing there. He said he was frightened and thought Drewes had something in his hand that might have been a weapon.

Levin fired one shot, hitting Drewes, who ran into a neighbor's yard and collapsed in the grass.

What is wrong with this moronic newspaper? They're all over the place looking at this guy's driving record and the value of his house, but zero or the specifics of the event. And nothing reconciling huge discrepancies. The kid hid in the bushes. The kid stood on the doorstep. What a BS story.

[crz]

Read the article again would you? It said they had a line on the knocker. So what you would do is answer the door, answer the door, answer the door, answer the door because that is what these little shits would have you doing. AND it was one in the morning. The only ones fried should be the parents who left these kids run wild at ONE in the morning.

[AppyPappy]

One of my neighbors was shot answering the door. I always look from the upstairs window.

[AppyPappy]

Lois Lamore

I'm going to have to ask you to step outside, cowgirl.

[G.Mason]

"The guy who did this should fry."

Get a rope, big mouth, and head on down there.

[G.Mason]

"OK, was he shot in the back or not?"

What?!

Rumors and inuendo are sufficient here.

Don't be so smart!

[meyer]

School officials enlisted the help of a crisis management team to provide counseling for students.

Your tax dollars at work. Geeze, Louise - we probably lost 10 students in my class over the 3 years of High School and never was there any need to enlist a "crisis management team" to console students.

[Publius6961]

In an older, saner world, this would be called what it is: an accident, caused by a brainless kid with a set of even more brainless parents.
One am?

Sounds like the neighbors aren't far behind.
As for the other kids "mourning" the little Einstein, welcome to the world of 2003.

Not sure what I would do, I have no weapons, but I certainly would not not be inclined to go quietly into victimhood. The cops have already made it clear, everywhere, that they can't prevent harm to anyone, and calling repeatedly will just get you labelled a troublemaker or worse, a nut.

So what were the victim's options? The shooter, not the Darwin Award candidate.

[demlosers]

BUMP... for later read and respond to the Nonsense that will be said on this thread.

You are correctly accessing the situation.

[CobaltBlue]

Boca Raton News has it shortly after midnight. Whatever.

And I didn't say "answer the door," I said turn on the light and look out the window to see if I recognized the person, and if I didn't, I wouldn't open the door.

Since they had fishing line on the knocker, he couldn't see the person knocking, so the intelligent thing to do was to go out and kill the person with the fishing line.

Based on conversations I've had over the years, there's about 10-20% of the general population who likes to big mouth about how they'd shoot anybody who came onto their property late at night. Lucky for the general public, most of ya'll won't get your chance. If enough of the rest are fried, maybe ya'll will learn that it's against the law to kill people just because they piss you off.

[CobaltBlue]

I hope it never happens to your kids. And if it does, I hope nobody tells you how it was inevitable.

[CobaltBlue]

Your tax dollars at work. Geeze, Louise - we probably lost 10 students in my class over the 3 years of High School and never was there any need to enlist a "crisis management team" to console students.

Ding ding ding, I think we have a winner!

[Oztrich Boy]

Anything that puts a hole in your window is not "pranking."

The info about the fishing line incidates the toddler was probably holding it in his hand. He mades a strange move that was intepreted as threatening. The homeowner reacted,

No bill.

[Publius6961]

Evidently, you have never been a victim of the obsessions of one of the residents of the shallow end of the gene pool.
I have seen people like you scream for more guns, given enough "treatment", be is lack of sleep due to very loud wannabe music, repeated strange doings in the middle of the night, an endless string of phone calls at all hours.

Consider yourself lucky, not to have found yourself in that position.

Just out of curiosity, would you sort of keep track of where your 16-year-old darling is at 1 am?

[CobaltBlue]

So you automatically assume that the kid who shot the house with the paint ball is the same one that got killed?

Well, my automatic assumption is that the neighbor is a freak, and the neighborhood kids treated him like a freak, which eventually became unbearable to him, so he freaked out and killed one of them.

And I also automatically assume that about 10% of the population is sociopaths (this is based on psychological studies of the general population), and that sociopaths won't think it's wrong to kill someone who pisses you off.

Which just might make you a sociopath.

[CobaltBlue]

No, I've never been the neighborhood freak, but are you saying that you are?

Because if so, maybe I'd rather keep track of where you are at 1 a.m., since people who are the neighborhood freaks tend to be treated that way for a reason.

[Publius6961]

Evidently, you have never been a victim of the obsessions of one of the residents of the shallow end of the gene pool.
I have seen people like you scream for more guns, given enough "treatment", be is lack of sleep due to very loud wannabe music, repeated strange doings in the middle of the night, an endless string of phone calls at all hours.

Consider yourself lucky, not to have found yourself in that position.

Just out of curiosity, would you sort of keep track of where your 16-year-old darling is at 1 am?

[Half Vast Conspiracy]

That's tough talk on an internet thread. How many folk have you killed so far?

I hope that you are just venting and aren't really that callous.

[CSM]

"Based on conversations I've had over the years, there's about 10-20% of the general population who likes to big mouth about how they'd shoot anybody who came onto their property late at night."........in a threatening manner (added by me)!

If you don't think it is acceptable to eliminate a percieved threat on your own private property, then you can't think the 2nd ammendment is valid. What other portions of the constitution do you find invalid?

His private property had been damaged in the past, it is reasonable for him to assume that any prankster on his property after midnight are intending further harm to his property! To bad the teens didn't value private property rights, now, at least one of them, has paid the price for his disrespect.

[CobaltBlue]

Consider yourself lucky, not to have found yourself in that position.

The word isn't "lucky", it's "normal."

Normal people aren't harassed by their neighbors. Human beings are like animals, they harass the freaks, the sickos, the crazies, and the creeps.

And sometimes the freaks, the sickos, the crazies and the creeps pick up guns and blow their tormentors away.

I don't approve of harassing freaks, but I think killing a child who is pranking you is grounds for capital punishment.

[Tijeras_Slim]

His green aluminum mailbox had been smashed.

Dang, I thought it was only my family that did this as part of the grieving process.

[CSM]

"Because if so, maybe I'd rather keep track of where you are at 1 a.m., since people who are the neighborhood freaks tend to be treated that way for a reason."

It doesn't matter if he was the neighborhood "freak"! It was his private property, he has a right to be a freak when minding his own business on his own property. If his "freakness" was not breaking any laws what gives the neighborhood teens the right to violate his rights and harass him for being a "freak".

What is your definition of "freak"? At what level of "freakness" does violating a person's rights become acceptable?

[vaudine]

Yor tax dollars--in a private Catholic school?

And what is it with the "counseling" teams? Especially in a Catholic school where they have priests and teachers. Like NOBODY is prepared except the professional shrinks.

vaudine

[joan]

Since the shooting, Levin's home has become the focal point of a candlelight vigil and a steady stream of teenage mourners. On Monday, candles and crushed flowers littered the sidewalk outside of his home. His green aluminum mailbox had been smashed.

This is not right - especially about the mailbox being smashed. The teens could be messing up the crime scene and even causing vandalism that might be wrongly attributed to the shooting victim or others.

[Publius6961]

No, I've never been the neighborhood freak, but are you saying that you are?

No I'm not saying it, you are.
Thank you for giving us a clue about your psychological age.

Because if so, maybe I'd rather keep track of where you are at 1 a.m., since people who are the neighborhood freaks tend to be treated that way for a reason.

Most normal people are home minding their own business.
Do I detect a hint of sociopathic behavior in your responses?
How are things in the trailer park?

Have a nice day.

[Chancellor Palpatine]

One thing for sure, the vicious pranks against neighbors rate just went way down in that neighborhood. And of course, you know there weren't just the two reported episodes.

I went to an all-male Catholic high school in a neighborhood like this, and know the mentality. Pick on the crazy guy, vandalize his home, and its all a big yuck. The neighborhood dads just snicker about it.

A few years after I graduated, the crazy guy who had been taunted for years and who tried to keep a neat home finally killed one of the little buggers.

[steve-b]

[CSM]

"And sometimes the freaks, the sickos, the crazies and the creeps pick up guns and blow their tormentors away."

Considering that he has no criminal history that would indicate he is a sicko or crazy, what makes you think he was worthy of harassment by the neighborhood kids? Maybe because he was a loner, maybe because he never handed out candy on halloween, maybe because he didn't allow the kids to trample through his yart on the way to their friends or maybe because he suffered from obesity. Speculation is fun isn't it?

[FITZ]

Well, my automatic assumption is that the neighbor is a freak, and the neighborhood kids treated him like a freak, which eventually became unbearable to him, so he freaked out and killed one of them.

That's what I think. I guess none of the former kids on here ever did any pranks either --- they were always at home at age 16, sitting and studying, they always did whatever their parents told them, they were always with their parents at that age, in bed by 9pm. I remember doing some pranks and I wasn't exactly wild.

[Tijeras_Slim]

Normal people aren't harassed by their neighbors. Human beings are like animals, they harass the freaks, the sickos, the crazies, and the creeps.

Is your favorite book "The Painted Bird" or "Lord of the Flies"?

[Ditter]

Stupid kid, I'll admit that, but this guy had no reason to shoot. He had been victimed by kids several times before, he KNEW it was kids. Think about that, he KNEW it was kids playing pranks. No matter how mad those pranks made him, he KNEW he was shooting at kids.

[Oztrich Boy]

So you automatically assume that the kid who shot the house with the paint ball is the same one that got killed?

NO, that was a comment on the newspapers choice to use "prankster"

Well, my automatic assumption is that the neighbor is a freak, and the neighborhood kids treated him like a freak,

That makes it alright? The term is "harrassment" and it's illegal.

And I also automatically assume that about 10% of the population is sociopaths (this is based on psychological studies of the general population), and that sociopaths won't think it's wrong to kill someone who pisses you off.

What I learnt from watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer: "One should never hurt the feelings of a vicious killer."

And as you never know who might be (on your own assessment) it's best not do do that to anyone.

Which just might make you a sociopath.

I'd call that a radical interpretation of the text

[Half Vast Conspiracy]

Your tax dollars at work.

Welcome to Pope John Paul II High School

That would be a Private Catholic School.

[stainlessbanner]

Hello the fire!

[#3Fan]

No, I've never been the neighborhood freak, but are you saying that you are? Because if so, maybe I'd rather keep track of where you are at 1 a.m., since people who are the neighborhood freaks tend to be treated that way for a reason.

I live in a decent town and an older guy that lives close-by was killed by two kids in his house on his lunch hour. Many's the time I've taken a gun to the door with me. It only takes one time for someone to off you and there are no second chances.

[meyer]

That would be a Private Catholic School.

I stand corrected, though I still think its silly.

[Honcho]

I've been on Free Republic for a few years now and I'm appalled that some of the members here think that the man was justified. It's pretty obvious that he had pranks pulled on his house before and was pissed off about it.


I've never opened a door in my life with a pistol in my hand. If I'm afraid of what maybe knocking on the other side of my door, I don't open it unless I know who it is. Now if they come through my door or window on their own accord, that's a different story.

[js1138]

This is Florida?

About ten years ago a kid threw a brick through a window of a house next to my son's high school. The homeowner chased the kid down in his car and shot him dead. He was arrested and tried.

The jury aquitted him.

[Pharmboy]

Both were wrong and one is dead.

[harrowup]

One thing for sure, the vicious pranks against neighbors rate just went way down in that neighborhood. And of course, you know there weren't just the two reported episodes.

You have the stats for this?

... A few years after I graduated, the crazy guy who had been taunted for years and who tried to keep a neat home finally killed one of the little buggers.

Please provide a verifiable source for your story.

Not trying to ruin your day, cp, but your record of truthfulness is not good...and suggesting that killing a prankster is a good way to cut down on toilet paper in the trees is a very dangerous ploy even for blowhards.

[steve-b]

And I also automatically assume that about 10% of the population is sociopaths

Well, duh, this explains why this genetic mistake was out harassing people at 1 AM.