Seriously?

Bare with me, this will be long.

Yesterday I had Tyler out front when he came and handed me a small ball. At first I didn't know what it was, but upon further inspection I realized it was probably a paintball (one that hadn't been opened). I thought it was possible it somehow fell out of something that my husband owns (a coat, his car, whatever) because he has a paintball gun, although to the best of my knowledge he hasn't used it in maybe 3 years. Within a couple of minutes though we found approximately 5 more of them, some of them splattered on our yard, our stones in our garden, etc. One was even splattered at the bottom portion of our garage, but because the wall is a very light grey I never would have noticed the white paint if it wasn't for the paintball sitting on the ground below it. At this point I realized it had nothing to do with my husband whatsoever.

I wasn't too upset by this. Kids do stupid things. I was pretty certain it wasn't intentional. I don't think we had been targeted in any fashion, because 1) we don't really have any enemies that I know of and 2) it was very apparent that there was not an attempt to hit the house...unless they had bad aim.

In the back of my mind I had an idea where it might have come from, but i tried to dismiss my thoughts as I really didn't think it was fair. However, it was hard NOT to wonder if it had anything to do with the house that regularly has police in front of it, and quite frequently has teens and young adults hanging around it at ALL hours of the day.

Well, fast forward to today. I went out in the morning and when I got home I saw that two paintballs had been splattered on the garage door. At first I thought it was possible that they were there yesterday and I hadn't noticed since the garage door was up. Though, it became apparent that this was yet another paintball attack as there are at least 3 more paintballs IN my driveway that were NOT there yesterday. At this point I was still in my car, so I quick called my husband and he says the paint was not there this morning. There was a cop parked at the end of my street (as there often is, which I think has to do with the problem house I was referring to) and my husband said to go talk to him. I am NOT the kind of person to try to get others in trouble, I try to lay low, and I REALLY didn't want to 'cause a problem, so I thought by just TALKING to the cop I might get some pointers or maybe they would just be aware of a problem. Well, he was no help. He tells me I can either A) just keep an eye on things (whatever that means) or B) call the police and file a report. Ugh, thanks for the help.

So, as I drove back down the street to my house a car pulls behind me, the car of one of the family members that lives in the previously mentioned house. I KNOW they saw me talking to the cop. Great.

As I get out of the car my next-door neighbor (NOT the problem house) comes out on their way to run errands, walks over to say hi, and comments on the paint. He says I should call the police and I resist and he offers to go over to the house and say something (he's 100% sure they are the culprits, although he doesn't have proof). The problem house was WATCHING this interaction. I chose not to make a big deal about it and cause any sort of scene because I don't want to CREATE any enemies where we didn't have any, kwim?

Anyway, so I go inside and put away my groceries and put Tyler down for a nap. I decided that I didn't want to do anything, but that I would like to take some pictures now (of the 2nd incident) in case it continues to occur. I go to walk outside (a good hour after this had all occurred) and the people in the problem house are just still sitting outside, so obviously I can't take pictures. I go to get the mail instead and notice that someone has come over and tried to wipe off the paint off the garage. So now I'm pretty darn convinced it was the problem neighbor and they did this as to not get in trouble (I'd like to think they did it out of the kindness of their hearts, but I'm having a hard time)! I will double-check that it wasn't my nice next-door neighbor that noticed it, because he WOULD be the kind of person that would try to help by washing the paint off for me, but I don't even think he's home yet so I don't think it was him. So, like i said, I am pretty convinced I know who it is. What the morons don't realize is that they missed one of the paintball splatters (I guess it was kinda hidden in front of my car). So, if they ever decide that they should be productive members of society and leave their garage I might be able to get a picture.

I am just pissed. Not necessarily pissed about the paintballs. Like I said, things happen. I really don't think it was intentional (or least I'd like to think so). I imagine the morons were just outside shooting paintballs at each other. But pissed that I live in an area like this. The paintballs are just the icing on the cake. This stupid subdivision was talked up by our realtor, the guys my husband worked with, etc. We did a decent amount of research on school districts, and we bought a house in the nicest area we could afford. I could have had a nicer house in a different area, but we chose this for the safety, schools, neighborhood, etc. But the neighborhood SUCKS. I know it's just unfortunate that I happen to have some bad seeds on my street, but I'm freakin' sick of having the cops out front. Yesterday I had to bring Tyler inside because "problem neighbors" were outside yelling and cursing at each other. Just freakin' sick of it. And now I'm afraid of any retaliation because I'm not dealing with a family with a full deck of cards, if you know what I mean. Lovely, just lovely.