[WeaponZero]

So, I was riding home from work last night, and the last stretch of residential road I have to go down before pulling into my driveway is a cobblestone road. I was going slowly because I was getting ready to turn into my driveway when my neighbors’ kids (2 little girls approx. 7-10 years old-live 2 houses down) were apparently playing a game. The game (I am not making this up, I swear) was to take turns running into the middle of the road when a car was coming to see if they could get the car to slam on its brakes. I am not making this up, seriously.

They did it to me as I was approaching and I swerved to the right to avoid them but because it was a poorly maintained cobblestone road I wasn’t able to keep the bike from falling over to the left when I tried to swerve. It fell over and landed on my leg (my foot would have been injured were it not for my Tourmaster boots). I was completely unhurt but I was ready to kill the 2 little girls who caused this incident because after it happened they just stood there laughing at me. My bike was completely undamaged except for a snapped shift lever, which is a quick and easy fix but the svrider.com forum guys are telling me to simply drill a hole thru whats left of the lever and stick a 1/4″ bolt thru and itll work just fine, because its not uncommon.

Fortunately the incident happened a few feet from my house, so I was able to walk the bike into my driveway. Afterwards I promptly went over to my neighbors home dragging their 2 little girls along and told the father about what happened. He dragged the girls inside, presumably for a spanking, but didn’t even offer to pay for the bike. What a dick.

[ShannonG]

I’m glad you told their father. They’re too young to be Darwin award conestants. Sucks about your bike though.

And the dad may have just been too embarassed about his kids’ behavior to deal with you at the moment. Put a bill for the new lever in his mailbox.

[megaspaz]

technically, no one’s too young to be darwin award contestants… why back in my day, i woulda got a whoopin’ from the rider and then a whoopin’ from my mum after the rider told my mum, and then a whoopin’ from my dad after my mum told my dad what happened. Nowadays, there’s no more whoopin’s… everything’s a frickin’ timeout… *shrugs*

—
If there’s anything more important than my ego
around, I want it caught and shot now…

[Amoryl]

technically parents are responsible for the actions of their children, and as such any physical damage to property caused by them is the responsibility of the parents (another reason I refuse to have kids) so while I know it’s a fairly inexpensive fix, if you ghetto it, if you wanted to make a big stink over it, they’d have to pay it (legally, now in actual fact…who knows) but it’s usually easier for them to pay for it than for you to raise a huge stink and drag them to civil court and have the police involved over their children’s blatant attempts to cause traffic accident (and in fact DID cause a traffic accident) which then in this day and age often gets child services involved (little kids running around unsupervised…not like we didn’t run wild throughout the neighborhood unsupervised for our entire childhoods without issue, *shrug* it really only takes about 20 minutes of time to file a police report about it, or about 5 minutes to mention that to the neighbor when you ask him to pay for the repair.

[ScottyJ]

That sucks and I would be fuming if it were me but… Although it would be nice if Daddio paid the bill, I can’t imagine he could actually be forced to pay. But I tell you what, if they had laughed at me after I had wrecked, I would have had to exhibit some serious self-control. So kudos to you for not going postal on their little arses and I’m glad you’re okay.

[Amoryl]

why couldn’t he?

If I stood out in the street and intentionally caused accidents I could and WOULD be held accountable. kids, though, legally can’t be held accountable for much of what they do, however in those cases the parents are held accountable. so if lil suzy sunshine takes a baseball bat to every window in your house, her loving parents would have to pay for your new windows. they’re just like pets, if your dog bites someone, you’ve got to be responsible for the doctor bills.

[CBennett]

Man as someone else said…if I were to do something like that as a kid id get 2 beatings from the car/bike rider and from my parents..and I would have DESERVED it too! Id put a Bill in his mailbox or actually talk to him..id fully expect not to be paid but id let him know that you expect reimbursement ….$$$ seems to make it pretty sure there will be no next time…BTW glad you are ok and glad I dont have neighbors like that.

[CBennett]

Sure he can be forced to pay as long as you can convince a judge it happened(they could totally deny that anything happened also) but Parents ARE 100% responsible LEGALLY for their children’s actions as far as damages and stuff like that go. I guess what you need to decide is it worth the animosity/bad blood it could create or is it something you do just on principal so that they know they cant do that…

[ScottyJ]

Amoryl, I just think it would be tough to prove the intent of the game was to make WeaponZero wreck. I am in no way justifying what the kids were doing or saying that the family shouldn’t pony-up some money, I am merely saying that proving it was their fault might be difficult.

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