Miscellaneous

Get Off My Lawn Lady a Belligerent Granny

It's not often here at QuizLaw that citizens involved in the comedically absurd criminal stories decide to actually respond. Last week, we told you about a 89-year-old woman who was arrested for basically doing what 89-year-old women do: She took a boy's ball after it rolled on her lawn. We thought it was absurd that she was arrested, but what the hell do we know. Anyway, the mother of the boy in question actually left a long comment addressing the situation, and I thought we'd post it, in full:

First, I did not call the police. My husband did. I was at work. My kids are not unsupervised - my husband is off work at 3:00, and he was actually the one who threw the ball to my son too high. Our neighborhood is normally friendly - Edna is mean to neighborhood kids, but for the most part they leave her alone. There has never been damage to any of her property - we've lived here over six years, and my husband has cut her grass every week throughout most of that time. In fact, days before this happened, she called him into her house to visit when he brought her tomatoes. My son is not disrespectful - he did not trespass on her property - he only apologized to Edna. We did not call the cops - we called the Blue Ash police station and asked for the neighborhood liaison to come out and talk with Edna and to get the ball back. We don't have a liaison because my family has caused problems. There are four other families with children - a total of 21 in the houses surrounding Edna's house. There is another neighbor who has called the police dozens of times on at least six separate neighbors that had nothing to do with us and often had nothing to do with children - things like cats peeing in the yard, expired license plates, kids not wearing their helmets. The lady's kid had a falling out with other kids in the neighborhood and it's been a challenge ever since.

My son's a good kid - honor roll - double accelerated math, accelerated science - Beta Club (volunteer organization that has numerous annual events) - he's on a committee organizing an Adopt-A-Soldier program. His Destination Imagination team won local and state and came in 24th in globals - his airplane design was 2nd in the world and the Blue Ash airport featured it in last years airport days - this kid had a summer job as a golf caddie - my husband works for USPlaying Card - his hours have been cut - his income slashed 20%. I was unemployed over the summer - this punk brat everyone is slandering came up with the idea of using his caddie money to pay for fun things for the family over the summer. He took the girls to the Taste of Blue Ash, bought pizza, took us out to eat, bought movies at Blockbuster on rainy days - got us ice cream. He bought a WII and shared it with everyone in the neighborhood - helped pay for his sister's birthday present - helped pay for gas, bought us milk, bread - even offered to go to the store when it was needed. I still owed him $200 (until last payday - I gave him $100. He put it in the bank until he decides what to do with it - wants to save for a moped.) It sounds pathetic and stupid, but the kid bought one thing for himself with his money - that stupid friggin football.

No we did not want Edna arrested - read the Cincinnati Enquirer - they got hold of the radio transmissions and proved that my husband asked the officer not to push it and said he was willing to wait for the neighborhood liaison officer. They arrested her because she got beligerant with them and threatened them. I'm not trying to be disrespectful to an old lady but the truth is the truth.

Lots more after the jump:

My son got two balls from PETA today. When I told him I thought he should send a thank you note, he told me that he already talked to his dad about going to take $10 from the bank tomorrow and go buy some thank you cards. I've no need to watch over this boy - I just wish he didn't have need to help watch over us.

By the way - a local radio station had had a genius idea - Edna's got a bunch of great-grandkids, and they talked to her granddaughter and were putting together a flag football game - the granddaughter was for it - Edna said no. A lawyer friend contacted me and offered his services for free - he is the chairperson of the Cinti Academy of Collaborative Professionals. He contacted her lawyer after I received a scathing letter threatening my kids with arrest from her lawyer. He asked to have a meeting with us to resolve this problem peacefully - Edna refused, saying she was too ill to travel downtown (15 minutes.) The night before, Dr. Phil's office had called saying Edna really wants to go on his show. That night she went to Bingo. That morning she had gone downtown and met with her lawyer. So Ross sent Edna's lawyer a letter requesting that she return the ball. Edna sent a check that someone had donated to her and said let that be payment for the ball - people are saying she is going to try to sell it. My lawyer said that isn't acceptable - we just want the ball back and to be left alone and to stop having idiots make judgments about things they know nothing of.

Full post as published by Quiz Law on October 28, 2008 (boomark / email).