Stupid Clowns

Edit: This post moved to http://www.theonlinerant.com/2007/10/12/stupid-clowns/

Well last night it was pretty interesting. Around midnight, I woke up to some very loud banging and what sounded like jumping on my front porch. Every once in a while, we have a raccoon that will get into a fight with the cats or my little brother's dog. Usually it ends pretty quick with the dog or the cats running the raccoon off. Last time it happened, they got into it on my front porch. So I didn't think anything of it. But the banging didn't go away, in fact it got louder and it sounded like someone was banging on my front door. So after about 5 minutes, I decided to get up and go downstairs and check it out.

As I came down the stairs, I heard movement going down the front steps off the porch and it sounded like something big. So I decided not to open the front door right away. You never know, it might have been a big dog or something. My neighbors two blocks away raise rottweilers. And if those get out, I'm not going to be leaving my house while they are still around. So I looked out the window, but I couldn't see anything obvious. Then I heard banging on my back door.

My back door has a big window in it. So you can easily see anything that is standing in front of it. When I looked back at it, there were two guys in clown masks standing there banging on the door. I grabbed a pool stick and started walking towards the door. At that point they ran off. Not sure what I would have done if they hadn't run off. I certainly wasn't going to open the door. So I guess it's a good thing they ran off and I didn't have to decide what to do with my pool stick when I got to the door. :)

I called my Mom right after that. Since my Dad is out of town right now, I didn't want them to go next door and start banging on her doors. I also wanted to make sure all her doors were locked. She ended up calling the cops. So they came out and looked around the neighborhood. Told us all to keep our doors locked. Not that we weren't anyway.

So that was my excitement for the week. My brother didn't wake up until they had already run off. Which is probably a good thing, because he wanted to go out and find them to confront them. So if he had been awake when they were still there, he probably would have been out in the yard chasing them down. Basically I think they were just playing a prank, and probably hit a bunch of houses in the neighborhood before the cops showed up. I know all the dogs in the entire neighborhood were barking.

What gets me is that this is one of the stupidest pranks to play around here. In Florida, if someone is on your property and you feel threatened, you are perfectly justified in shooting them. Just a few years ago, there was a case were a man shot a trespasser and killed him. The trespasser didn't have any weapons, but the owner of the property said he felt threatened. And he got off with no consequences. That case solidified the property laws and when deadly force is considered justified in Florida.

I don't own a gun, but I know a lot of my neighbors do. So banging on peoples doors in the middle of the night to scare them, could actually end up with you dead or in the emergency room. Not really a "fun" way to end a prank.