The woman is absolutely in the right. She should have used her lawn mower on the balls and then returned them. Simple enough.
ha ha ha!! that is funny! a friend of mine said the woman should have stabbed the balls with a knife a few times before giving them back.... i like your idea waaaaaaaaaaaay better....oops! hey, little johnny, here's your ball back...uh, got a bit deflated tho......was riding the ole tractor around and i must have run over it...sorry about that honey, but yanno, when your my age, the eyesight just aint what it used to be....lol!
course she probably woulda still been arrested for destruction of property of what is reported as a $40 dollar ball, but hey, the satisfaction might be worth it in that situation.....
doing and go outside, and throw their ball back over the 6' block wall? How many times a day or week is a person "required" to do this, even after talking numerous times with the kids and the parents of their kids -- parents who, themselves show no respect for another's property? What's the time frame here? Am I obliged to stop what I'm doing right now to go get the ball I've already returned once today, or I'll be thrown in the slammer?
i think one of the rites of passage for kids everywhere is to learn how to retrieve the ball without the neighbor seeing you do it! when i was growing up it was mrs derby with her 15 foot hedges to climb thru. we were all afraid of her so asking wasnt an option. when my kids were little and noisy the police told me that whoever calls first gets taken more seriously. and i think thats how it finally ended with my neighbor problem. she called the police on my kids a few times for things like running thru the sprinkler or singing. she was worried that the water from the sprinkler would get her house wet and it made her nervous. the police didnt want to deal with it. they said call first and i did call them once when she was swearing at them and they came out and talked to her and she never called again. part of the problem tho is that people dont have established relationships with their neighbors anymore and another problem is that even when people do try to speak to the neighbors you run into the not my kid thing. its a difficult problem. i suspect because of the arrest that the police felt the woman was being unreasonable and figgered an arrest would chill her out a bit. i hope it doesnt escalate things tho.
i agree with both cat and owl on this....nothing more to add as both definitely have valid points.
the problem i have with this situation is the old lady being arrested. more than a bit extreme, imo. i know the police have a job to do and they only arrested her after asking her several times to return the ball, which she said she would, just later.....i still dont feel arresting her was the right thing to do.
I think they should have tazed her. lol. Of course I'm kidding. The woman is absolutely in the right. She should have used her lawn mower on the balls and then returned them. Simple enough.
We have probably all been on one side of this story or another. I know when I was a kid, my next door neighbor, Mrs. Kennedy, hated kids. She used to swat us with her broom as you walked past the house.
I'm picturing a scene, where the woman is always yelling at the kids to stay out of her yard. Their ball always seems to land in it for whatever reason, and they go to retrieve it, irritating the elderly lady.
No one here will convince me that the boys didn't make a game out of it from time to time purposely tossing the ball into her yard. If they were interested in keeping the peace, they could have moved the game away from her yard.
Either way, this is your typical neighborhood dispute where everyone feels they're right. The cops should stay out of it and most certainly should not fine anyone $1,000.
Woman, 89, Busted for Keeping Kids' Ball
BLUE ASH, Ohio (Oct. 20) - Police in Ohio say an 89-year-old woman was facing a charge of petty theft because neighborhood children accused her of refusing to give back their football.
Edna Jester was arrested last week in the Cincinnati suburb of Blue Ash.
Police said one child's father complained that Jester kept the youngsters' ball after it landed in her yard. Police Capt. James Schaffer said there has been an ongoing dispute in the neighborhood over kids' balls landing in the woman's yard.
Jester said Monday she has received many calls and didn't have time to discuss the matter any more.
Jester is to appear in court next month. The maximum penalty for a petty theft conviction in Ohio is six months in jail and a fine of up to $1,000.
If kids have no regard for another's property, and if on a practically daily basis a homeowner is working in their home office, and interrupted by those same children hollering "hey lady! Get our ball!" At what point does one cease to be obliged to stop what they're doing and go outside, and throw their ball back over the 6' block wall? How many times a day or week is a person "required" to do this, even after talking numerous times with the kids and the parents of their kids -- parents who, themselves show no respect for another's property? What's the time frame here? Am I obliged to stop what I'm doing right now to go get the ball I've already returned once today, or I'll be thrown in the slammer?
I told you to hang onto their balls until they went to college or jail! Didn't I? Anyway, congrats that the neighbors are gone, just pay closer attention even now that the house is empty. These are just more of those things the bad guys seem to look for. Oh, and it was Ohio, and in Ohio, all the old lady had to do was threaten to shoot herself and they would have ripped up the ticket and forgiven her mortgage all debts and probably erected a statue in her honor. Just "google" old lady in akron shoots self debts written off.... ;) Or so they say.
Sad part is I just read the startling rate at which middle aged, caucasian women are committing suicide. A 57% increase is unbelievably unnsettling. Old women in Akron should not be using the threat to have their debts "forgiven".
Good thing it wasn't Chicago where handguns are banned and the old lady would have likely been shot dead by the kid and the kid charged as a juvenile and released to do it again. Well, not the ball thing, bigger things, but with guns.
i agree with both cat and owl on this....nothing more to add as both definitely have valid points.
the problem i have with this situation is the old lady being arrested. more than a bit extreme, imo. i know the police have a job to do and they only arrested her after asking her several times to return the ball, which she said she would, just later.....i still dont feel arresting her was the right thing to do.
We have probably all been on one side of this story or another. I know when I was a kid, my next door neighbor, Mrs. Kennedy, hated kids. She used to swat us with her broom as you walked past the house.
I'm picturing a scene, where the woman is always yelling at the kids to stay out of her yard. Their ball always seems to land in it for whatever reason, and they go to retrieve it, irritating the elderly lady.
No one here will convince me that the boys didn't make a game out of it from time to time purposely tossing the ball into her yard. If they were interested in keeping the peace, they could have moved the game away from her yard.
Either way, this is your typical neighborhood dispute where everyone feels they're right. The cops should stay out of it and most certainly should not fine anyone $1,000.
Woman, 89, Busted for Keeping Kids' Ball
BLUE ASH, Ohio (Oct. 20) - Police in Ohio say an 89-year-old woman was facing a charge of petty theft because neighborhood children accused her of refusing to give back their football.
Edna Jester was arrested last week in the Cincinnati suburb of Blue Ash.
Police said one child's father complained that Jester kept the youngsters' ball after it landed in her yard. Police Capt. James Schaffer said there has been an ongoing dispute in the neighborhood over kids' balls landing in the woman's yard.
Jester said Monday she has received many calls and didn't have time to discuss the matter any more.
Jester is to appear in court next month. The maximum penalty for a petty theft conviction in Ohio is six months in jail and a fine of up to $1,000.
If kids have no regard for another's property, and if on a practically daily basis a homeowner is working in their home office, and interrupted by those same children hollering "hey lady! Get our ball!" At what point does one cease to be obliged to stop what they're doing and go outside, and throw their ball back over the 6' block wall? How many times a day or week is a person "required" to do this, even after talking numerous times with the kids and the parents of their kids -- parents who, themselves show no respect for another's property? What's the time frame here? Am I obliged to stop what I'm doing right now to go get the ball I've already returned once today, or I'll be thrown in the slammer?
We have probably all been on one side of this story or another. I know when I was a kid, my next door neighbor, Mrs. Kennedy, hated kids. She used to swat us with her broom as you walked past the house.
I'm picturing a scene, where the woman is always yelling at the kids to stay out of her yard. Their ball always seems to land in it for whatever reason, and they go to retrieve it, irritating the elderly lady.
No one here will convince me that the boys didn't make a game out of it from time to time purposely tossing the ball into her yard. If they were interested in keeping the peace, they could have moved the game away from her yard.
Either way, this is your typical neighborhood dispute where everyone feels they're right. The cops should stay out of it and most certainly should not fine anyone $1,000.
Woman, 89, Busted for Keeping Kids' Ball
BLUE ASH, Ohio (Oct. 20) - Police in Ohio say an 89-year-old woman was facing a charge of petty theft because neighborhood children accused her of refusing to give back their football.
Edna Jester was arrested last week in the Cincinnati suburb of Blue Ash.
Police said one child's father complained that Jester kept the youngsters' ball after it landed in her yard. Police Capt. James Schaffer said there has been an ongoing dispute in the neighborhood over kids' balls landing in the woman's yard.
Jester said Monday she has received many calls and didn't have time to discuss the matter any more.
Jester is to appear in court next month. The maximum penalty for a petty theft conviction in Ohio is six months in jail and a fine of up to $1,000.
