Child Endangerment
This happened shortly after college. My mom is a retired, disabled woman who now owns her house on a quiet residential cul-de-sac. She has lived there longer than anyone else.
Her neighborhood has designated parking spaces at the end of the cul-de-sac, all with the addresses of each house painted in the parking space. My mom doesn’t get out much, so I use her designated parking space.
At the time, we lived in the same city and I visited her weekly to bring groceries, fix broken things, cook for her, etc. My mom parked her car in the backyard of her house, since she went out so little. Mom kept busy by gardening or baking/buying cookies for the children on the street.
Mom’s neighbor, Ivy,never parked well. Whenever I stopped by, her car was always parked so close to my car that I had to park on the curb. I wouldn’t have cared about Ivy’s poor parking but for two things:
1) She had four or five kids and had parties almost every weekend, leaving trash in Mom’s yards; 2) I loved my car, a 2016 metallic ice blue Dodge Challenger Hellcat, the first car I had ever purchased brand new.
I washed that car once a week, detailed the interior, and had rules against eating, drinking, or even leaving trash in my car. It was my pride and joy. Mom had called the authorities throughout Ivy’s residence because of the parties.
Ivy’s guests would fill up the cul-de-sac with their cars, obstructing traffic, and get into loud fights at and after midnight. I often found empty bottles, empty condom wrappers, etc. on the fence between the properties, mostly on Ivy’s side of the fence. This is all important information.
One Saturday while having dinner at Mom’s house, I heard a loud crash and my car alarm went off. I ran outside to see Ivy’s older model Honda Accord back out of her parking space and speed down the street. Ivy’s Accord had a dent from the front bumper to the door and the headlight had popped out.
I approached my Challenger with trepidation and screamed in anguish at what I saw. My car, my beautiful three-week-old car with less than 500 miles on it, had a dent stretching from the passenger’s door to the front bumper, and the right front wheel was tilted at a 30-degree angle.
I was livid and in anguish as I called the authorities, filed an online claim with my insurance, and arranged for a tow truck to take my damaged car to the dealership. The estimated cost of repairs came out to 3400 USD (total cost of repairs was eventually 6,500 USD).
I had a low insurance deductible but my car was parked and Ivy owed for the damages. For two weeks, I knocked on Ivy’s door or waited for her to come home. She stopped driving her damaged Accord and either rented or borrowed a Ford Fusion.
When she was home, she didn’t answer the door. When she wasn’t, she stayed away until my rental car left Mom’s parking space. I left a note on Ivy’s door for her to call me, but only received harassing calls from restricted phone numbers or people blaring air horns in my ear when I answered.
Then came my revenge. About two weeks after the accident, Ivy’s children came to Mom’s house for some cookies. I noticed that two of them had bruises around their eyes. So if Ivy hadn’t hit my car, I still would have done what I did but maybe not as underhandedly.
I had Mom take pictures with and of the children but waited until the next party to strike. Ivy had a party that night or the night after. Mom called me to let me know and I installed an app onto my phone that gave me a fake phone number.
I called 9-1-1 reported the party. “There’s a loud party at 1007 Mountain Drive, and I’m worried because the children are around all these adults. Please, hurry!” Mom called to let me know officers had arrived.
I drove to her house (stopping by the grocery store first so that appeared to be the reason), and saw Ivy and her boyfriend Banealready sitting in the back of a squad car. From a news broadcast that night, I found out that Bane had warrants out for his arrest.
Initially, the charges were disorderly conduct and disturbing the peace. However, Mom turned over the photos of the children (anonymously mailing them through the post office with Ivy’s address and name as the return address).
Less than a week later, Ivy and Bane were charged with child endangerment charges.