Posted on 05/15/2011 11:23:09 AM PDT by newnhdad
If the builder makes the repairs the buyer doesn’t have an issue.
Perhaps the neighbors are trying to discourage garage size homes so as not to devalue their properties
Put it in perspective,
Not likely a (out of town) hoodlum is carrying a BB gun and pellet gun on a public transit bus/train to a distant suburb to randomly shoot at half built McMansions, then carrying the weapon on public transit back to whichever area he resides.
That BB gun and pellet gun reside right now within walking or bicycle distance of your new house,
the perpetrator can transit through the golf course, or around the edge of the lake, and never be seen on public roads.
the perpetrator is probably too young to drive a car.
Opportunistic vandalism in the teenage wasteland of the DC suburbs.
Be more concerned about finding enough social activities for your daughters in the new neighborhood so they don’t go drift into the never do well crowd of teenagers in the area. Vandalism like you describe is a prime example of a underlying hooligan culture in the teenage wasteland in the BoWash corridor. I think Henry Rollins wrote a book with a few chapters dedicated to his teen years in the wasteland in your area.
You might think about adding some trail cameras to your property, adding them during a school day before the end of school year, and making sure they are well camouflaged.
There have been FR threads about trail cam recommendations...
here’s some examples:
http://www.basspro.com/Hunting-Electronics-Game-Cameras-Accessories/_/N-1z11cyj
Just asking but if this is a gated community and very quiet with really nice homes I’m wondering how the gangbangers got in there and also as they are holding target practice why aren’t the neighbors calling the cops?
Not me not me it’s newnhdad.
I just know because every time I’ve found something similar it was kids with a pellet rifle. After checking the holes it usually lead back to their home.
Of course the next step became trying to convince the parents that “little Billy Boy” was running around putting holes in the neighbor’s homes.
The other big one was riffling through unlocked cars. Samething - neighborhood kids - never could run ‘um down but they got bigger and moved on.
Man, you've got that right!
Within the last 6 months, I've had to travel to Orlando, Dallas, and NoVA on business.
All my work was in "upscale" areas and five star hotels (except for travel into DC).
I literally cannot believe how people who live in these places put up with it.
I live in a town where the last murder (a crime of passion) was in 2009. The last murder before THAT was in 1961.
People who live in the places I've been visiting organize their entire lives around crime and blacks, specifically, avoiding both. In Dallas, the malls have prison guard towers in the parking lots! I kid you not!
America is in very deep trouble if people have to live this way.
What you said about gated communities is exactly right. When the zombie apocalypse happens, those gates ain't gonna do s***.
If you think you need a gate, move.
The fact that you can shoot is just a small part of surviving an armed encounter. Knowing what to do & especially what NOT TO DO/SAY after you defend yourself is even more important.
Get legal & ready with the lawyer cause in this day & age you can be involved in a righteous use of force & still get raped by the system.
The very concept of gated communities is very foreign to much of rural America.
I agree with Jersey Highlander.
And don’t think you are protected from this anywhere.
We live in a nice suburb in PA on a fairly busy road. A couple of months ago, around 8 PM at night, we heard a large bang. Upon investigating we found a hole in our front picture window-”drive by” pellet gunshot. By the time we discovered what had happened, the shooter was long gone.
The shot penetrated the outer pane only of a double pane window. We’ll be out about $500 to replace the pane.
We called the police and they were not very interested. Said it was probably a kid with a pellet gun taking a potshot at random and we happened to be the “lucky” ones.
We’ve lived here for 30 years and never had our house vandalized, so I guess we are pretty fortunate.
It can happen anywhere at any time.
The reasons are simple. You are not in business of fighting for your life. You are just buying a house. If the house doesn't work there are plenty more out there.
Some say those are just teens with airguns. Maybe. But those teens will still be there after you move in; what makes you think that they will not find shooting at an occupied dwelling more fun than shooting at a construction site? An airgun can be very dangerous; I shot a gopher in my garden an hour ago with a .22 airgun; dead in 10 seconds. It can kill your pets, your young children, and will wound an adult. Teens are immune to laws of common sense and may be more dangerous than adults. Again, it is not your business to deal with any of that.
You say that you are "deep into the deal" already. Well, if you go ahead you will be even deeper than that. If the area is unsafe you won't be able to sell because other buyers will be in your shoes.
You can request an LEO to visit and prepare a report. Then you take that - now official - report and tell the seller that you are getting out, and he'd better return the deposit (and whatever else you paid) because I'm very sure he never disclosed to you the facts that are in the police report. He will chicken out and let you go - there are other buyers, after all, and he doesn't need to make too much noise over this.
Buying a house is a huge responsibility; you need to do a lot of due diligence because otherwise you may get into something that will cost you dearly, or make life there impossible.
The simplest way to solve your problem would be to install a video camera or to pay someone to do surveillance. I bet a lot of people who need a few bucks under the table would be happy to do something like that. Or, you could offer the neighbor money to be security and watch.
Good luck!
“The site super is dealing with the local LEOs, or says he’s dealing with the local LEOs.”
If all you have is his word that he has gone to the local LEOs, rather than some paperwork substantiating that claim, I’d go to the police myself and see what could be done about this. His idea of talking to police (or sheriff, whatever) might be extremely informal and not very useful. If nothing else, perhaps you could find out from the police what the crime situation is (or is not) in that whole neighborhood. If you find out the whole ‘hood is having problems with this, then maybe you don’t even want to live there. Conversely, if you find out it’s just your house, maybe you don’t want to live there after all anyway.
Re telling them at the meeting that you will take care of the issue yourself: Bad idea. This gets you painted as the Crazy Gun-toting Neighbor and they won’t take you seriously. Better not to mention guns (of yours) at all.
The threat that *I* would use at the meeting would be if they did not give you your money back immediately (all of it), my next communication would be to all local papers and local radio stations who might be interested in the apparent state of lawlessness, crime, and danger in their lovely gated community.
FWIW, I would be thinking seriously about trying to bail from this property. Even if you find out who has been doing the shooting (assuming it is annoying neighborhood teenagers), you will probably have made enemies of them and their parents, in addition to getting branded right away as a troublemaker in the community. (People talk.) Of course, I don’t know all the ins and outs of this, so there may be other factors to take into account. But I would not want to put my own children at risk in that sort of situation. JMHO.
It is my opinion that we are reaching Mad Max level. Even small towns are over run with illegals and the problems they bring with them.
So—if you have to live in a gated community why stay in the United States? At that point, relocate to a place where you will not have Leviathan on your back. What Americans do not realize is that there are places in the world where you can live a lot cheaper and with much weaker centralized governments.
Why stay here and pay for ever expanding government where you receive absolutely no benefit from it and just the constant expectation to hand over more and more of your money to pay for it. Not security. Not safety. Not even massive time off as the Europeans experience. Nothing. I can’t think of one single benefit we are receiving for this monolith on our backs.
It’s probably a neighborhood kid with a pellet gun. And he probably shoots out of his backyard. Just find out which yard the pellets are coming from and go talk to the parents. That should stop it.
Seeing that it is a pellet gun, the range is very limited and it shoud be quite easy to find out who is doing this. They have to be within about 50 feet to do any damage.
I had many of the same feelings that you probably are having, and was concerned about our family's safety. But we never had any more problems after that.
I also don't mean to discount the dangers of a pellet gun. A friend of mine has a pellet gun that shoots .45 caliber cast projectiles and has nearly the same stopping power as a 45 handgun. The better quality pellet guns especially can develop high velocities and have impressive penetration.
Don’t go to a general lawyer. Look for one that deals specially in real estate. He will know more than a lawyer that handles everything...When I bought a spec. house directly from the builder, I took all papers to a realestate lawyer and they don’t usually charge an arm and a leg...He gave me some good advice and also offered to go to the closing with me if I wanted...
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