Vandels in Wick

[the_count]

You can always tell when the kids are off school as things suddenly start getting vandelised AGAIN. I am refering to the veiwing platform on the river. Not a lot they can do up there you may think but they have done their damndest. Broken bottles, litter and general thoughtlessness for others has now been topped off with vandelization of the posters (yes some people like to know what they are looking at). Perhaps a short visit to the police cells is in order or do they have to burn the thing down before the police become involved? [disgust]

[hotrod4]

Thats typical at this time of year.
It wasnt that long ago that the police stated in the groat that they would be "stepping up" patrols in the area, doesnt seem to work :(

[justine]

As some find out the hard way, wick has a lot worse than just vandals in it and the police are stretched to deal with all the incidences that come up daily for them. Unfortunately what these kids get up to when away from their parents may be annoying, but there are some that are more disturbing...[evil]

[balto]

unfortunalty, i think that if they want to destoy things, they will find a way to do it, whether or not the police are patroling said area, sad world really when they get kicks out of damaging things that can give people pleasure.

[unicorn]

Well I for one think kids are getting more brazen by the day, we have a large group running riot nearly every night in our area. They are running through everyones property and just don't care. I am sick of telling them to get off my garage roof and last night I caught one trying to climb over my 6 foot fence. I am sure had my dog been out and upset the darling the parent would have responded fast. I dont want to waste the polices time so have not called yet but my patience is over thin now. If one goes through my roof do I have to shell out to fix roof and then compensate??

[balto]

Well I for one think kids are getting more brazen by the day, we have a large group running riot nearly every night in our area. They are running through everyones property and just don't care. I am sick of telling them to get off my garage roof and last night I caught one trying to climb over my 6 foot fence. I am sure had my dog been out and upset the darling the parent would have responded fast. I dont want to waste the polices time so have not called yet but my patience is over thin now. If one goes through my roof do I have to shell out to fix roof and then compensate??
you are right, that is your property and these kids should have a bit more respect than to invade it, it amazes me the age of the kids that run around(live in the same area as unicorn)some are in p2 and this is about 10pm it is a disgrace, the way they get to run around.

[unicorn]

It's 13 year olds the last few nights and younger ones they are playing with. I don't mind if they are on the rented garage roofs I don't have to pay to fix that or worry about being sued but when they are literally bouncing on mine it is very annoying. That said it's bliss tonight, must be too wet. The other thing I don't like is when they are running round all the cars and in and out the garage entry, it is an accident waiting to happen.

[percy toboggan]

I'm sorry for your troubles Unicorn.
This element must be a real pain.
They seem to be almost everywhere...I
count my blessings daily but live in dread
of such behaviour happening around here.

Some might try to downplay the effects of this
kind of behaviour but it must be both wearing, and extremely unsettling.
I wish you well.

Do smaller villages suffer similar levels of anti-social behaviour?
What about Thurso?

On an even more serious note I read somewhere here that Wick is 'flooded with heroin' is this true? Surely it's a case of overstatement.

[unicorn]

I am in a housing estate in Thurso, privately bought house so any damage comes from my pocket. Kids have always gone on the rented garage roofs and it is not a problem but always had a swift get down!! when they go on mine and they always answer and get a sorry but now they really couldn't give a monkeys and this is the first summer in 14 years in this house that I have had them come over the fences on to my property.

[balto]

it would be a different story if one of them went though your garage roof, or hurt themselves going over the fence, then it would be your fault, totally wrong. when i mentioned the young children being out lte, wasnt implying they were causing trouble, just surprised such young kids being llowed out lte t night, but s unicorn said it is quiet tonight, must be the rain.

[George Brims]

Leave the van Dels alone. They are a perfectly nice family!

[Oddquine]

Not bad at all here........but I used to live in a block of four flats in Elgin, and a certain few of the local kids used to use our communal areas, garden areas and shed roofs as their own private playground..........and wet weather shelter.

I used to chase them off............only to get stones and snowballs regularly thrown at my windows..........breaking them more than once......and did the parents care a toss.......did they heck as like.

[porshiepoo]

The worst we've had here (and the only incident I think) was some kids started a fire (or attempted to) in the woods on our land. When our kids alerted us that there was smoke and they could hear voices my OH grabbed the dogs and went haring down there.
The kids had gotten over the fence and were high tailing it at that point but hubby managed to get in a few choice words and warnings first. Haven't had a problem since.

The problem we have here is that kids in general think it's OK to just help themselves onto our land, that wouldn't be too bad ordinarily but we have loose dogs that may very well bite if they're enticed. I have to say though that the inconsideration of delivery drivers and visitors in general is the worst here I've ever known. We have a sign saying our dogs are loose but people still open the gate, come through and leave the gate open despite the sign telling them not to.

Apologies though I'm wandering off the actual topic so I'll shut up now. lol.

[Venture]

As some find out the hard way, wick has a lot worse than just vandals in it and the police are stretched to deal with all the incidences that come up daily for them. Unfortunately what these kids get up to when away from their parents may be annoying, but there are some that are more disturbing...[evil]

Can you maybe explain in more detail what you are trying to say here.

[rfr10]

Don't worry, we'll be targeting some of these "kids" that hang about the streets and get up to no good soon to try and get some off the streets at night.

The one thing I'd say though is that I really don't agree that you should be referring to them as kids. All it does for the rest is puts them in a bad name. Young people have been given the name "Youth" but now people have turned this into a bad name by referring to "Youth Crime" Anytime we hear about vandalism, the initial thought is "Youth" "Teenagers" They aren't all the same so would you kindly refer to them as something else like "Yobs" It isn't always teenagers who get up to no good. A huge amount of adults do aswell but teenagers don't go about saying "The sooner we get these adults off the streets the better" Even if it was maninly teenagers that cause the trouble- the ones that don't, don't want to be in this widely used category.

I'm sorry but if there's one thing that really gets my back up, it's bad press that teenagers get these days and surprisingly enough, it's always adults that give it to us.

[skinnydog]

This might give my age away but here goes.
Kenny Everett had a caracter on his show that said.
"Round em up, put them in a field and bomb the bas****ds".
I think that would sort out the vandals.

[dolly]

To make this short and sweet a friend of mine, an elderly lady has had no end of trouble.
Vandals have repeatedly broke her windows on nurmerous occasions and the police say that nothing can be done unless they are caught in the act.
Once whilst she was in the kitchen a stone came smashing through her window and thank goodness never hit her.
I think its terrible that in this day and age that an elderly woman has to put up with the cost and the stress of it, all because of a few thoughtless Vandals[evil]

[justine]

I have just been reading some of the police appeals for witnesses to vandalism and theft in wick and thurso, and it suprised how much of it goes on. I know i keep pretty much to myself, and being oblivious to the crimes that go in wick, im suprised.
It is harder when it happens to the elderly, who dolly rightly says have the expenses and the heartache every time it happens to them, needless vandalism is painful, expensive and the police really should try to come up with a law that opens up opportunity for the public to take some matters into there own hands, without breaking the law themselves.
Thirty years back the vandals would have had there heads clipped and made to pay for the damage, these days its a case of if we catch them,,
Coming from a rough part in england they believe in tit for tat, if someone had their window put through it would not take long for them to find out who was responsible and retaliate. eye for an eye, Its such a pity though because of these maindless folk others have to pay, in pocket and mentally aswell.[disgust]

[BHG]

Perhaps a short visit to the police cells is in order

As someone who used to get upto this kind of mischief..............and worse, I can tell you that a visit to the cells won't make a blind bit of difference.

I strongly believe that the main reason kids get upto this kind of stuff is through boredom as there is next to nothing for them to do. The people that are quick to jump on kids when they get upto mischief, are the same people that create the problem by stopping the kids from partaking in harmless activity. To explain what I mean by that comment, as a kid with my friends we would play football in the square or golf in the playing fields, just kids playing and causing no harm to anyone, but because one particular woman complained about football being played too near to her house it was banned with the council putting up "ball games prohibited" signs (there was a similar situation with the golf from another resident), this in turn led to us spending much more time just hanging around and then through boredom getting upto various pranks, not to mention the fact that the woman who complained then became our number one target and we'd take every opportunity to deliberately kick a ball against her wall, chuck eggs at her windows, etc. etc.

Also, I always say there is no such thing as bad kids.............only bad parents, and that has become very evident to me in recent years having sampled some of the roughest areas in Liverpool, Manchester and surrounding. I currently live in quite a nice area, but prior to moving here I lived in an area where kids as young as 9 were doing drugs, and would pull a knife on you if you dared to approach them (the teenagers were much worse), and the difference between the areas is the parenting. In the bad area, there were a lot of single mums who would allow their kids to run wild to all hours as they entertained or went out pubbing/clubbing, kids who would steal because their parents priorities were hanging off cancer sticks and always having an alcoholic refreshment in the hand rather than providing for their children. In the area where I live now, broken homes are less common and parents actually care about their children, virtually every kid belongs to a football club or rugby club (which involves training once a week and a match on Sunday) as well as there being plenty of after school clubs and plenty of places for kids to go, there's a swimming pool on our doorstep and another 5 minutes drive away, cinemas, bowling, lazer quest etc. all within 10-15 minutes drive away and generally a better class of people who don't object to kids playing happily in the street (also a headmaster at the nearby primary school who isn't afraid to go against the council guidelines barring anyone from the school fields, he'd rather the kids have somewhere to go than be on a street corner and getting into trouble and therefore as parents we all have a set of keys and a rota for opening and locking the grounds so as the kids have somewhere to go).

What I'm saying, is that instead of knocking the kids that are causing bother, perhaps your energies would be better spent on fighting for better facilities for them, for better education and better parenting. I don't know what Wick is like today as I only get up probably once a year or so, but I doubt it's much different from when I was a lad, I haven't read a Groat for many years but I do remember how on a near weekly basis I'd read that Norfrost had been given x amount of money from the council for something or other yet there was never any money to spend on providing for the towns youth, so you could start by appealling to your local councillor asking for public monies to be put to better use.