I was informed by my wife the other night about a kid with a new bb gun had shot out some street lights. She told me to give Rich a call as he knew about it. Rich told me he had come home late that evening and noticed upon driving up to his driveway, glass on the street underneath the street light next to his mailbox. He drove around to find three other lights shot out also. He came upon a young lad with a bb gun and proceeded to knock on the door of the house where the kid was standing. It was the father of the one kid who was with the kid with the bb gun. The father came out and the kid with the bb gun had already left the scene to leave his friend to tell the story. It was said that the friend from Turtle Lakes had come over and that he had walked around Montilla Loop and shot at the street lights. None of the actual light bulbs had been broken but the lenses were completely shattered.
After the wife came in and woke me up to tell me this I promptly called the Sheriff. I wanted a report made out on this incident. The Sheriff came out and asked me what I wanted to do. I said if he could go over and talk to this young kid and let him know what the consequences of his actions could bring, maybe it would make a lasting impact on him, especially coming from an officer of the law. He understood and said he would do this.
I thank Rich for being a good neighbor and taking the time to look into what happened. If this had not been followed up on who knows what might happen next with this kid and his bb gun. The father told Rich that when he was thinking of buying the gun for his kid that maybe it wasn't going to be a good idea. When the father came over with the kid to talk to me about it upon Rich's asking, I told the father that if he would take the time to set up some soda cans in the field for the kid to target practice with him, that it might be a better idea than to let him wander around and shoot at anything that comes to mind.
The kid admitted that he and his friend had gone bird hunting in the back field and that he had shot a black bird. Rich told the kid that there are some birds that are federally protected and that he could get into a lot of trouble if he shot at the wrong bird and someone saw him and he was caught.
Hopefully we won't see this boy and his bb gun around again. Now I've got to call TECO monday morning and report the lights that are busted.
