High School Pranks in Riverview, Fl? (Tampa, Fort Lauderdale: apartment complex, foreclosed, lease)
Tampa BayTampa - St. Petersburg - Clearwater
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I moved to the Tampa Bay in Oct 2010. We rented at a new community at Progress Blvd and 301 in Riverview. I didn't know much about this area but I am quickly learning. This past Saturday- about 50 to 60 teens pulled into our apartment community and took over our swimming pool/parking lots. They were super loud and quite rambunctious and mouthed off to our Apartment manager when she asked them to leave. The Sheriffs were called to the scene and the entire episode lasted about 30 mins. When the teens were leaving- they did stop to blast rap music from their trucks and some of the girls started dancing in the parking lot in their bikinis. But finally they left the property.
After a talk to our apartment manager- she said the sheriffs told her it was only a high school prank that the local high school does. The teens take over swimming pools as the prank.
So I guess my question is- does anyone know about this prank and does it occur yearly? My only concern was how many of them gathered in such a quick manner- how they easily took over the property- and how disrespectful they were if it was only a high school prank.
Last Friday there were 3 cars broken into on our property as well. And at th community next door - I understand they started stealing hub caps off cars- which sounds like bored teens. Since all this happened over one week-end- is stealing hub caps part of the high school prank as well?
What else is there to do in "Riverview"? LOL I guess this is what Florida kids do to have fun, besides wasting time at the local Malls! since culture is not really encouraged in this state in any form.
I want to say I am surprised, but I am not, we had our windshield broken when we lived in Fort Lauderdale and a DVD player stolen from a gated community......there are no words for this besides: "Parents who failed to raise their children well"!
I would say whomever manages that place has failed as well. This kind of stuff should NOT happen, or be allowed to happen. IF the Law enforcement doesn't do anything about it, sue them, the apartment building for not providing a proper secure environment for the tenants. Tenants have rights too. You should NOT have to pay rent and have this kind of abuse allowed to happen.
Haha, that is a funny prank. I find it absolutely hilarious that everyone who lives in the apartment complex were too scared to approach these kids. You see, the problem with American Youth is that American Adults no longer keep them in check. Back in the days, all the "grown ups" at the apartment complex would have come out, as a community, and chase these kids away. Nope, not anymore.... everyone just goes on with their own business in fear.
America = Home of brave soldiers but not brave citizens.
4 doors down from us, there are 3 boys, two tween's who decided to play Hokey by hitting the ball against a garage door that belonged to a vacant home at 8PM...their house was 4 homes away, our house was straight across...the noise was awful...I got out and told them to take a hike because 1. It is NOT their property and 2. It is 8PM and some is us have kids in bed or just want to relax and not listen to the noise of the puck against a hollow garage door! How freakin rude! This is what I call "bad parenting"! If I catch my kids doing that they'll be grounded. Sadly "common sense" is no longer taught as these new generations seem to fear disciplining their kids for some reason!
Quote:
Originally Posted by FloridaKash
Haha, that is a funny prank. I find it absolutely hilarious that everyone who lives in the apartment complex were too scared to approach these kids. You see, the problem with American Youth is that American Adults no longer keep them in check. Back in the days, all the "grown ups" at the apartment complex would have come out, as a community, and chase these kids away. Nope, not anymore.... everyone just goes on with their own business in fear.
America = Home of brave soldiers but not brave citizens.
4 doors down from us, there are 3 boys, two tween's who decided to play Hokey by hitting the ball against a garage door that belonged to a vacant home at 8PM...their house was 4 homes away, our house was straight across...the noise was awful...I got out and told them to take a hike because 1. It is NOT their property and 2. It is 8PM and some is us have kids in bed or just want to relax and not listen to the noise of the puck against a hollow garage door! How freakin rude! This is what I call "bad parenting"! If I catch my kids doing that they'll be grounded. Sadly "common sense" is no longer taught as these new generations seem to fear disciplining their kids for some reason!
Do you know the parents of these tweens? I make it a point to introduce myself to my neighbors on my street. At least when you first move in. You may not hang out with them or communicate with them afterwards, but at least you have met. Even if you haven't met them, I am sure if you went and knocked on their door and explained to them in a friendly manner that their kids are making a ruckus at 8pm and possibly causing property damage, they would respond in a favorable manner.
Where is the sense of community these days? I'm not attacking you Algia, this is a widespread issue and I think it contributes to the crumbling of the American Community.
There's a saying, "It takes a village to raise a child". Unfortunately this no longer applies because people are afraid to notify other people's children if they are doing something inappropriate.
Heck, the other day when I picked my kids up from school, some kid thought it would be funny to put a branch in the middle of the road. I saw this kid do it, then hide behind an electrical box. I pulled over, rolled down my window and said, "Hey bud, I saw you place that stick in the road. Please pick it up." The kid was shocked somebody said something and promptly and politely proceeded to pick it up. Once I saw him remove it from the road I was sure to say, "Thanks for taking care of that. Have a great afternoon!"
Kindness goes a long ways. 9 out of 10 times if you politely and respectively notify a parent that their child is doing something that is disrespectful, illegal or may cause them to pay for damages they'll address the problem, politely. Heck, most of the time if you address the kids directly, they'll stop.
Maybe people don;t get it. Asking someone to not do something or to right a wrong should not be confrontational and frequently isn't. Did I mention Americans are becoming a bunch of wimps??
I totally agree with you FlKash. I do the same thing.
We were at a playground a while ago and several bigger kids (early to mid teens) decided to jump on the equipment and run around. In the process, they were literally knocking over the little kids who were the only ones that should have been on that equipment in the first place. Not one other parent said anything at all. I was stunned. I do not tolerate anyone hurting my kids, and walked over and firmly told them to GET OFF NOW and explained that they were hurting and scaring the little kids. I swear, every one of them stopped and the one that seemed to be the ringleader said "yes, ma'am". They all got down and walked away.
I still don't understand why no one else said anything. I really was shocked.
Community is SO important. One of the first things I've done when we've moved is introduce our family to the neighbors and we work at keeping that connection going. I don't like the "everyone for themselves" mentality that seems to be getting more and more prevalent.
We know them, they never get out, they used to before one other family moved back to Texas they we friends with them, we got along with them also but after they moved back to TX these ppl never came out again! the guy, (they're not married they just have 3 kids together), came and yelled at me after we had to move accross the street (because the original house we rented foreclosed on us, and so, luckily our friends allowed us to rent their place which was across the street), about the garbage cans that had garbage that needed to go out, that was put to the curve at the old house and wanted me to take it to the new house while the garbage cans belonged to THAT house not the one we moved too, which I explained, he was pissed because he had to mow that lawn now that we didn't live there anymore.....he has a lawn mowing company and because of the deed restrictions here if there is a home that is vacant, ppl are supposed to park in its driveway to pretend someone lives there and also mow that lawn, so he was pissed he had to do that all tho my husband told him prior that he has no problem helping with that.....the girlfriend never comes out, is always in the house and is not very friendly. He hasn't spoken to us since tho...they are quite weird. We were not about to take the garbage cans and my husband put them back in the garage of that house after the garbage picked it up, so there was no mess or anything...
The spirit of community is gone, at least where we live up here, forget it, nobody ever comes out, all you see is a few babysitters around that are also not able to say "Good Morning" don't know why that is....but it is sad for sure that ppl are like this! You smile or say hi and thye wonder what do you want from them?
I know what you're saying Kash, but I don't see/think we can go back to being community oriented especially with the way ppl move around here non stop.
Quote:
Originally Posted by FloridaKash
Do you know the parents of these tweens? I make it a point to introduce myself to my neighbors on my street. At least when you first move in. You may not hang out with them or communicate with them afterwards, but at least you have met. Even if you haven't met them, I am sure if you went and knocked on their door and explained to them in a friendly manner that their kids are making a ruckus at 8pm and possibly causing property damage, they would respond in a favorable manner.
Where is the sense of community these days? I'm not attacking you Algia, this is a widespread issue and I think it contributes to the crumbling of the American Community.
There's a saying, "It takes a village to raise a child". Unfortunately this no longer applies because people are afraid to notify other people's children if they are doing something inappropriate.
Heck, the other day when I picked my kids up from school, some kid thought it would be funny to put a branch in the middle of the road. I saw this kid do it, then hide behind an electrical box. I pulled over, rolled down my window and said, "Hey bud, I saw you place that stick in the road. Please pick it up." The kid was shocked somebody said something and promptly and politely proceeded to pick it up. Once I saw him remove it from the road I was sure to say, "Thanks for taking care of that. Have a great afternoon!"
Kindness goes a long ways. 9 out of 10 times if you politely and respectively notify a parent that their child is doing something that is disrespectful, illegal or may cause them to pay for damages they'll address the problem, politely. Heck, most of the time if you address the kids directly, they'll stop.
Maybe people don;t get it. Asking someone to not do something or to right a wrong should not be confrontational and frequently isn't. Did I mention Americans are becoming a bunch of wimps??
If kids taking over your pool is the big prank, I don't think it is too bad. Kids seem to be doing worse and worse things, so playing in a pool without permission seems pretty tame. At least they didn't do something that takes a lot of cleanup (TPing the neighborhood right before a rain storm), or caused damage to property.
About the sense of community some people are posting about. We live in a great neighborhood where kids play outside, parents and neighbors talk outside and will watch the other kids if one parent has to run to the store, etc. When my husband was out of town for a couple of weeks and I had a very busy schedule, one of my neighbors noticed our yard getting a bit tall and mowed it for us while I was at work. We are having a big Memorial Day BBQ and besides our other friends, we have at least 15 of our neighbors coming so far. We will discipline the neighbor kids if we see them doing something wrong. It is a great neighborhood with a great sense of community.
Also, I don't know if it was the way I was raised, but I have no problem telling random kids that they are doing something wrong. My mom never had a problem with confronting random kids in public. I was at a community center a few weeks ago and while my daughter was inside taking a class, I decided to sit on a bench near a playground and read. There were about 30 kids who all looked to be under 10 playing on the playgrounds. There were also a lot of parents around. Some young teens appeared and almost immediately I heard strings of profanity coming out of their mouths. My head snapped up in shock that I was hearing this on a playground with all of these kids around. One girl saw me looking at her and stopped talking all together. When the other continued, I walked over to them and politely asked them to stop by saying (with a small smile on my face) "I am not sure if you are aware, but there are a lot of impressionable young children that can hear your conversations. I don't think that is appropriate language for them to be hearing at a playground. Would you mind either changing the words you are using, or moving somewhere that there aren't children playing?" They all looked stunned and after a minute they stood up and left. As they passed, I looked up, smiled at them and said thank you. One of the dads came over and asked me what I said to them. When I told him, he was shocked that they responded to politeness and said he wouldn't have said anything and he was about to pack up his kids and leave before I talked to them.
I have learned over the years that kids and teens love choices. They all want to feel older and more responsible than they really are. If you can word things to give them a choice, they feel like they were in control and that they are doing what they want to do. Not what someone told them to do.
*Disclaimer: I am not saying this is the best parenting technique. I am just saying that most of the time this is the best way to go with kids you don't know since you don't know how they will react to confrontation.
I understand that this was mostly a harmless prank if that is what it was. The problem was that they looked liked 50 to 60 gang members and looked more intimidating than that kid who last shot a cop in St Pete. They certainly did not look like teens- but like they were in their early 20's. So I agree that all the "grown ups" here did not stand up and ask them to leave. They were fearful....we all thought these people had guns. Plus there were so many of them- it was overwhelming. The female manager who did ask them to leave felt so threatened by these "teens" that she called 911. It was the sheriff that told her the group was teens. I was just hoping that someone who is long time resident here would post and say "Oh this is nothing- the kids from Progress Village do this every year" to make me feel better. My lease is up soon and I am moving to a differnet part of Riverview as soon as I can.
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