a couple nights ago I'm working an area that has become real popular as a place for highschool and college kids to come drink & use drugs. Then after they get their buzz on they vandalize the property with graffitti and by starting structure fires in one or more of the vacant building on the property.
So I'm lurking in the shadows waiting for somebody to bust, when I hear a mettallic springy noise that sounds strangly familiar.  I hear the noise a few more times followed by someone crying out in pain and laughing. Finally an adult man and a juvenile man walk into my veiw. The adult male raises his "gun" and shoots the streetlight closest to him several times. The juvenile male shoots the adult in the calf, laughs, and then shoots the street light closest to him! As I'm watching this I cant help but wonder if I'm watching darwin at work? I had to decide if I really wanted to blow my cover and ID myself just to break up this up. I decided i better stop them, ruining any chance of catching anything better later, becuase I was concerned they would turn the BB guns on the several cars parked in the area.
So I lit them up with my flashlight and ID myself. They begrudgingly put the BB guns down, still not sure if I was who I said I was.
Turns out it was a 35 year old man with his 15 year old nephew. The BB guns were cheap CO2 powerered ones. So cheap that they didnt even damage the street lights they shot. The 15 year olod was pretty calm, the uncle was shaking so bad i thought he was going to have a heart attack. I decided not to arrest them and charge them with the laundry list of laws they had broken. Instead I took their names, let the air out of their Co2 cylenders, and made the uncle lock the guns up in his trunk, and turned them loose.

We all played with BB guns as kids, but I was surprised by the stupidity of these two shooting each other and the street lamps.

That is almost sad. What a role model too! When I was a kid, there was another kid down the road from me that got his kicks by shooting the street light in front of his house with a Red Rider. He shot the damn thing for about six years until one night the light had enough holes in it to break sending a shower of about six hundred BBs pouring down. The kids ex-Marine dad was returning from his evening stroll around the neighborhood and saw this happen. Poor Jeff never had a chance. On a cool Spring night, when the moon is just about full you can still hear that kids screams.

I think I would've just stayed hidden, gotten the license plate and let them drive away.  Then the next day checked to see if there were any other streetlights blown out or cars vandalized. I can imagine the look on Dad's face when he get's a giant repair bill.  It would've been a good learning experience for both.  [:D]