Should I be concerned??

[JetMaxx]

My grandmother and I went to dinner this evening with other family members....and when we returned home, someone had left a large "Jack-O-Lantern" sitting on the corner of our front porch (complete with a small candle inside). There was no note attached, and none of the neighbors claim to have done it, or saw anyone around our home while we were gone (dad and Beth were both at work, and Maria and my stepmom have been shopping all afternoon, so I know it wasn't any of them). I was wondering if anything like this had ever occurred to anyone else, and do you believe I should be concerned?

[VanceWxMan]

NO this sounds like a harmless prank

Some peeps like to make up jak-o-Lanterens and place them all over town.

Aaron

[Miss Mary]

For several years now, someone starts a harmless neighborhood game called The Phantom was here. You are given treats for the family and 2 papers attached. One is the picture of the Phantom or Ghost. And the other has instructions. To keep the fun going, you have to hang the Phanton picture in a front window and Phantom another neighbor. The fun is in ringing someone's doorbell, leaving the treats on the porch and then hiding. When my kids were younger they got such a kick out of this! Our treats this time were oreo's to which Laura said - oh great, we get cookies that give us cancer. And the other were mixed nuts, which Nina couldn't eat! But then Hope, our Golden, got a bag of dog biscuits. So we figured it was a family with a dog who ghosted us.

We ghosted an older, retired couple once and I swear the husband was ready to get a baseball bat and chase us. I quickly came out from behind a bush and said - it's just the Boskens!!!! He looked at us funny, like Mary aren't you too old for this? I had Laura with me, about 10 then, I shoved her up front like see I have a kid with me. LOL

Seems harmless to me Perry.

Mary

[Lindaloo]

I would not be too concerned Perry. My children and a group of their friends carved Jack-O-Lanterns and put them at the Principal, Asst. Principal, Band director, and Coach's homes last weekend. It is just a prank and I am glad they are doing that instead of rolling homes. My home has been rolled three years in a row. lol. I am ready for them this year though. I have a plan of my own.

[JetMaxx]

Dad just told me not to be worried....if they really meant business, they'd have put a sack half full of chicken manure on my porch with toilet tissue on top and set it on fire (like he used to do as a teenager to neighbors as Halloween pranks

As a teenager, dad said he also used to "rock little kids" who were trick-or-treating....with black walnuts (ouch!!

[streetsoldier]

An intact, candle-burning jack-o-lantern? I wouldn't be concerned...

Now, when I was a kid about 7 or so, we woke up the day after Hallowe'en, and found the remains of at least 20-25 of them smashed against our porch and front door by local kids (we lived in an all-German-ancestry neighborhood, and when we first moved in, when I was only a baby, my Dad got phone calls such as, "Go bahck vere you came from, auslander [foreigner]!")

[Colin]

I wouldn't be concerned at all! Heck, you got a free pumpkin!

[Stephanie]

It could've been a gift from a kind hearted person - I'd be more concerned if it was smashed on my front porch!

[GalvestonDuck]

I heard that it was a gang-initiation. Jack-o-lanterns pass each other during Halloween night and if one doesn't have his candle lit, the others aren't supposed to flash their candles to warn him. But if one does...oh, wait, that's cars and headlights, isn't it?

Oh, I know. After you see the jack-o-lantern sitting on your front porch, the phone rings and the person on the other end says, "Seven days," and then in seven days, you get scared to death and...no, hold on, that's "The Ring."

I remember now! He's the Great Pumpkin and on Halloween night, he flies over the neighborhood, searching for the most sincere pumpkin patch so that he can give candy and gifts to the well-behaved kids. It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!

[JetMaxx]

Well Shawn, you must understand where I'm coming from..

1) I recieved several death threats in June and July after getting some troublemakers banned from a forum in honor of former POW Jessica Lynch....one phoned threat was traced to a pay phone in southeast Tennessee...less than 100 miles from my home. One a-hole even called up my 19 year old sister and threatened to rape her...break her legs so she'd suffer "just like Jessica" (we traced his phone calls to Alabama). I was shocked at the hatred my small website tribute to Jessi Lynch provoked. So were other webmasters who made similar websites. Even though I took my site offline in late July, in part out of concern for my family's safety.....I'm still recieving hate emails because of it (got one only a few days ago). Anti-war kooks and President Bush haters blame Jessica Lynch's rescue for the U.S. destroying Saddam's regime (because it motivated U.S. forces)....they hate her, and anyone who defends her (ask singer Eric Horner if you don't believe me. He's recieved death threats and dozens of hate-filled emails; his wife was recently attacked at a state fair where he was performing by two anti-war idiots. They called her "warmonger" and spat on her.

2) Less than two months ago, I assisted in the arrest of a gang member with a long arrest record, including several violent offenses. He came to my door claiming to have been robbed...when I called the cops, he became engraged and bolted. Turns out he was actually running from the cops after being spotted breaking into cars and lockers at a nearby Gold's Gym. Before being captured, he attempted to attack an elderly woman not far from my home (after she refused to give him a ride). When I picked him out of a police lineup, I learned he'd made threats against me and another neighbor who refused to help him escape.

There's a reason I'm a little concerned over anything out of the ordinary lately (folks in this neighborhood don't go around placing jack-o-lanterns on each others porches). If this had happened last October, I'd quickly dismissed it as a childish prank. Not after what I've experienced since May.

[Lindaloo]

Alot of us understood your concern Perry.

I forgot to tell you how proud I was when you did what you did regarding the gang banger. You are a quick thinker and you did the right thing.

[JetMaxx]

Thanks Linda...it has been an eventful summer...one I could have done without. Atlanta's serious crime problem has unfortunately come to the suburbs

[Lindaloo]

Hopefully, this was just an isolated incident in your quiet suburb. If there is no "Neighborhood Watch" in your neighborhood that may be something you can look into or become involved in. All of us in my neighborhood work in shifts and we double up on the weekends. It has brought us all closer together.

I live near two schools. I am the "McGruff House" in my neighborhood. If a child feels threatened he/she/they know they can get to my house and the authorities will respond immediately. I have already had to activate the system three times this year. Two were minor threats and the third was serious. You fit the profile of both of these programs I mentioned. Check into it.

[Toni - 574]

I would just hang a big sign from my front porch and say
THANK YOU!!

[ColdFront77]

If this is indeed a prank, it sure is an annoying one.

[GalvestonDuck]

Perry, I understand. I was trying to be lighthearted. Obviously, it didn't come out that way. I'll just take my two cents elsewhere.

[stormchazer]

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Perry, I understand. I was trying to be lighthearted. Obviously, it didn't come out that way. I'll just take my two cents elsewhere.

GalvestonDuck

I thought it was funny....

[JetMaxx]

Perry, I understand. I was trying to be lighthearted. Obviously, it didn't come out that way. I'll just take my two cents elsewhere.

Shawn, I'm very sorry. I wasn't trying to be arrogant....or to hurt your feelings.

I totally overreacted to an innocent prank that was most likely done by kids. I should have never posted this thread....in retrospect, I now realize it makes me look very foolish.

[GalvestonDuck]

Perry, you didn't look foolish. You must have been in a serious mood while I was in a goofy mood, so you weren't able to read my post in the light-hearted tone with which I had written it.

Nine times out of ten, if it has a winky-face, it means I'm being goofy, light-hearted, or comedic. A couple of people had already said that it was probably a harmless prank, so I was just trying to lighten it up more.

*hugs*?

[JetMaxx]

Thanks Shawn

((((HUGS))))