Denver Decorative Concrete & Custom MasonryI know the name of seven teenage girls that just vandalized our home. What actions do we have against them?
Immature teenage neighbor girl had a huge sleep over and the girls decided it would be funny to vandalize our home! They made a homemade recipe of mashed potatoes,starch,glue along with several food colors. They definately were in this to do damage. Especially with adding the colored dyes. They smeared it all into my siding,windows,screens,front door,side door,key holes for keys,bushes,light fixtures,door bell,porch,swing on porch,180’concrete driveway,sidewalks and even inside the mailbox! Brats! They did this because of a boy situation with our teenage daughter. They took their childish behavers out on our property. Causing us 4.5 hrs. of major cleanup!! What can we do legally to have these girls punished. The neighbor lady just laughs about it and says do what you have to do..go for it. Thinking nothing will happen to her daughter or these girls.HELP we need guidance with this. I called local law enforcement and they looked at damage and said for us to call if we wanted to report it to insurance co. other then that really nothing. Need some guidance here. Thanks!
All the girls spent the night at my neighbors home.
We did not know the names of the girls when the law enforcement came to our home in the a.m. few hours later the neighbor girl came over and told us.
Yes, the law enforcement officer did come before we cleaned it up. I showed him all around the house and pointed out the different spots. He admitted it was pure vandalism.
On top of it I forgot to mention…they toilet papered us too along with this other recipe of stuff. The neighbor mom mentioned if you really want to go after my daughter for littering in your yard then go ahead. Geezzzz she would have snapped if it were their home!! They almost have a love affair with their home!
You could sue the girls for trespassing on your land. Depending on your state you could sue the girls’ parents for negligent supervision, but that’s a harder case to prove.
Call your local law enforcement and report the vandalization. When they arrive, tell them that you know the names of the kids responsible and can also give them the parents’ addresses. The law enforcement will get in touch with the school or parents and will question the children and/or ticket them or fine the parents as necessary.
Depending on how much you want to invest in this, you could take the parents of the girls to civil court and try to collect damages (a couple hundred dollars spent on clean up costs and light fixture/door bell replacements I imagine). A civil trial will not require a lawyer, but you’ll want to make sure you have copies of all law enforcement reports and any receipts for replacement parts or clean up equipment. It would have been a good idea to take pictures of the damage before cleaning it.
Probably nothing will happen if you have no proof. A belief that they did it isn’t proof.
Did you not tell the law enforcement your evidence of who did it. That is called vandalism and is a criminal offense.
Other than that there is very little you can do because suing for your time in the clean up is not going to gain you much even if you could prove they did it.
This is a law enforcement matter. Hopefully you called the law enforcement before you cleaned up. If not, hopefully you took pictures of the damage before you cleaned up.
The problem is that often the law enforcement aren’t really interested in pursuing a case like this. Partly rhe cost of it, partly the hassle. If they came over and then only mentioned insurance – realistically they aren’t going to prosecute/
If there was significant expense involved you could try some kind of small claims court action (it depends where you live but no attorneys are involved).
You could go to each of the parents of the kids involved, providing you can get the names from your neighbour. One of them must be decent enough to care…and if they want to punish them you can suggest the girl helps out doing something in your house for free for the equivalent time.
I hope u took photos. so long as you have a law enforcement report u can file a non auto liability claim against your neighbors home instance policy. try to get ur neighbor to admit it was her bratty child (she obviously takes after her mom) and the friends. through text or recoding or thru a note. if she will not tell u what insurance company she has, ask the law enforcement to or contact yours they should help.