Neighbourhood kids harassing me and my family. Please help!
Hi all!
I live with my mother and we have both been suffering from harassment from kids for over 2 years now. We are quiet and keep to ourselves so I'm not sure what made them start but I need some advice. I will start by saying I'm all for kids to be outside playing with their friends and riding around on their bikes but the disrespect is ridiculous. These kids would be around 10-14 years old, and were simply tired of it and now wanting to move away because of it.
It started off as knocking and running and then went into throwing things at the house (rocks, bark, chalk, chunks of brink and concrete) and then went into kicking our colourbond fence, garage door, front screen door. We've had death threats hurled at us over the fence and when my mum has been out the front gardening. Things like, "I know you're there, I'm gonna come back and kill you and chop your head off," etc.
We don't have security cameras because I feel like these kids will just break it off or break it in general. They stopped throwing stuff at the house when I had managed to catch them doing it and spoke to them kindly about how it's not safe or respectful and they could hurt themselves, etc. But now they just keep banging on the door or kicking it and running off. It sends my dogs ballistic and scares me and I'm at a loss for what to do anymore. I know they're looking for a reaction and I've been writing down date, time and what they do in my notes on my phone so I have a record of it. No other neighbours seem to have a problem with it around us so I feel it's targeted but like I said, I have no clue why. We are very quiet and keep to ourselves.
Any advice is immensely appreciated as we are so tired of it and it's left us angry and anxious. I wouldn't be able to speak to their parents unless I ran after them and followed them home but that feels like a crime and I don't trust these kids to not lead me somewhere and then attack in large numbers. I'm looking for advice, both legal and not legal and wondering whether the police would even do anything.