OK, so there I was, laying on the couch watching OSU whoop the 'Canes, posting snide remarks on ARFCOM, having a good time as overtime started.

I hear voices and car doors outside Casa Diesel. Peering through the blinds, I see a car in front of the house and a couple of peeps messing with the stop sign. Hmm. So on go the boots to see what's the matter. When I flip on the porch light, the peeps retreat to the car and take off.

I go out to investigate. Sign post bent, no tire tracks. They didn't hit the sign, they were trying to boost it! While driving a late-model dark-colored Crown Vic, no less. So as I'm pondering the scene, I hear a bit of a ruckus up the road.

Lo' and behold! It's da same cah! Up the street at a house frequented by local hot-rod wannabees, I see the same car as before, with the occupants honking and yelling at the people inside. They're pointed my way, so I decide to wait a bit to see if they drive by. Sure enough, they do, at a higher-than-posted rate of speed. No plate on the ex-KCPD (you can still see where the decals were) cruiser.

Call the fuzz, non-emergency number, and make a report. Wait around outside in case the doofii come around anymore. Cops arrive. Statement given. Chit-chat ensues. I'm wondering about the outcome of the game. We make field repairs to the stop sign post.

Then the responding officer sees a car matching my description (well, not the description of me, but the description of the car that I gave to them - you know what I mean) a couple of streets away. Off goes one squad to track down the car.

Call comes over the radio that the car has been stopped. I get in the back of the other squad to drive by and identify the car. En route, the call comes over the radio that the driver confessed. I identify the perp vehicle.

EPILOGUE: (Just like on Dragnet!)
Turns out the responding officer arrested the driver a month ago for some other petty property crime. Perp was arrested tonight on a criminal damage to property charge and released with a NTA. That's Notice to Appear. I didn't know what it meant either.

All-in-all, it was kind of fun. And, this little punk hopefully gets the message that Philbert watches what goes on in front of his house, and doesn't put up with this sort of shit. It's the little stuff like broken street signs, shot-out street lights, cars parked in yards, etc., that runs down a neighborhood quickly.

Game over, news over, Seinfeld over. Will and Grace on. Quick! Change channel to Discovery Wings Channel!

Bad boys bad boys whatcha gonna do when they come for you!

Its like an episode of cops on ARFcom.  Good job DzlBenz, more people need to be alert to whats going on in their hood.

Thanks, schapman. I was just reading your nocturnal excitement thread. Glad everything turned out OK, but sympathize with you having to live upstairs from unknown quantities. I always hated living in apartments. I lived in a place once where the guy down stairs and across the hall was a pothead that liked to beat up his very cute girlfriend. One night he was tossing her around when I was home. Cops came and took him away. He slipped on the stairs numerous times, and he may have bumped his head getting into the patrol car. About four times.

The girl came to my pad the next day, embarrassed, but grateful. She wanted to demonstrate how grateful she was. Then. There. I declined, not wanting to take advantage of a girl in a fragile state. I have never regretted it.

I'm not afraid to get involved, if I think I can help. In the case of the clods in front of my house tonight, I was just trying to help preserve the state of my neighborhood, and punish those who would denegrate it.

Shameless BTT for the Breakfast Club.

because of [peep], they'll get to see the  [smash]