Heartbroken

[babylove6635]

thats horrible i am so sorry for you its bad enough when you loose them on your oun but for someone to steel them is not right and im am trying to be nice about it i hope you can get them back unharmed and fry the theven bast.......!

 

[Tom]

Sigh. This sort of thing ticks me off royally, but sometimes, the smart path is to count your blessings, cut your losses, prevent a recurrence and move on with your life. It sucks, but we are never promised happiness or fairness in this life.

NO! NO Mark! This sort of apathy and defeated attitude is exactly WHY this sort of thing happens. What you suggest might be smart, all things considered, for an individual in the very short term, but as ErikaO pointed out in post #75, it will lead to "bigger and better" crimes for these kids. These kids just learned a valuable lesson that bad behavior has NO consequences and the cops aren't gonna do JACK! Because of all this liability and fear of the righteous good man being persecuted or prosecuted, the bad people thrive, perfect their craft and make a great living out of crimes against the innocent. I don't remember what person said it, but the quote is something like this: "All that has to happen for evil to prosper, is for good men to do nothing". SOMETHING must be done. Every person must determine what their "comfort" level is, and how far they are willing to take it, but I, for one, will not stand by and do nothing when the law of the land fails miserably. I won't talk about what I've done or what I would do on a public forum, but these people would regret ever stepping foot in MY yard... And consequently would think long and hard about ever doing it to someone else... Crimes MUST be punished, one way or another, or our entire society will continue to crumble...

 

[Neal]

Tom, so what action do you suggest?

 

[Tom]

Tom, so what action do you suggest?

I have no suggestions to offer on a public forum. Each person must decide what is right for themselves. I am saying that for their own good, and for the good of society, those parents and those kids need to be suitably punished for their wrongdoings. If the law won't do it, then somebody else must. Any action should be considered and executed very carefully. None of this is a matter to be taken lightly.

 

[cmosuna]

It's sad but we are trying to turn this into a positive, a motivation to push harder for education and awareness in our community as well as others. This story on different sites got thousands of hits and was talked about and shared by others as well. Please check out our FB Page and help us grow our educational efforts by Liking, Sharing and possibly donating through our paypal account. We would like to raise enough money to install security cams that double as web cams, hopefully promoting these in schools to be watched and taught about in conjunction with the onsite discussions we have with children and adults about our shelled friends. Please visit us at www.facebook.com/osunaturtlehouse

 

[Laura]

Go to the Media.... if for no other reason, to educate...

 

[jaizei]

Maybe ICE would be interested in these people?

What makes you say this?

---

Sigh. This sort of thing ticks me off royally, but sometimes, the smart path is to count your blessings, cut your losses, prevent a recurrence and move on with your life. It sucks, but we are never promised happiness or fairness in this life.

NO! NO Mark! This sort of apathy and defeated attitude is exactly WHY this sort of thing happens. What you suggest might be smart, all things considered, for an individual in the very short term, but as ErikaO pointed out in post #75, it will lead to "bigger and better" crimes for these kids. These kids just learned a valuable lesson that bad behavior has NO consequences and the cops aren't gonna do JACK! Because of all this liability and fear of the righteous good man being persecuted or prosecuted, the bad people thrive, perfect their craft and make a great living out of crimes against the innocent. I don't remember what person said it, but the quote is something like this: "All that has to happen for evil to prosper, is for good men to do nothing". SOMETHING must be done. Every person must determine what their "comfort" level is, and how far they are willing to take it, but I, for one, will not stand by and do nothing when the law of the land fails miserably. I won't talk about what I've done or what I would do on a public forum, but these people would regret ever stepping foot in MY yard... And consequently would think long and hard about ever doing it to someone else... Crimes MUST be punished, one way or another, or our entire society will continue to crumble...

Completely agree. Some neighborhood kids walked across my lawn once.

Once.

Next time I saw them, they made sure stay on the other side of the street as they rolled by. LOL

---

Promoting vigilantism against 10 year old children is a bit much.

 

[terryo]

I would do absolutely NOTHING.....for the next six months. Let things quiet down completely. Where I come from, these people would never do something like this again.


"Crimes MUST be punished, one way or another, or our entire society will continue to crumble..." IMHO....your are right Tom!

 

[*Barracuda_50*]

A lot of people are surprised by the unresponsiveness by law enforcement to this situation. Unfortunately, I'm not surprised at all. Stanton is in Orange County. Orange County has already made huge budget cuts and still has a deficit. They also went bankrupt some 18 years ago. Sherriff deputies and other offices like the District Attorney have already faced huge cuts. Its an unfortunate result of the poor economy that, "We're not going to do anything about a couple of kids that took a few turtles."

I work for California's Department of Justice. I investigate these types of claims where local law enforcement acted inappropriately or failed to act.

One response that I got investigating a claim that shoplifters weren't prosecuted, and its very typical of the types of responses we get in these types of cases, "We can spend our time and resources going after killers, rapists, child molesters, armed robbers, drunk drivers and the like. Or we can take people and money away from that to prosecute those kids that ran out of the gas station with $12 worth of sandwiches and bottles of soda that they didn't pay for. What would you have us do?" My supervisor had me close this complaint with no further action taken.

Wow, don't they understand that to allow thes young trouble-making, non-parented children to get away with these "lesser" crimes, those same children can become our robbers, muderers, and child molesters!!??! Don't we teach our children to stay away from the "lesser" drugs because they only lead them to the harsher ones?!! Sheeeesh! We better wake up and start holding people (adults and children) accountable for their actions or we're in for a whole lot of hurt!!

Sigh. This sort of thing ticks me off royally, but sometimes, the smart path is to count your blessings, cut your losses, prevent a recurrence and move on with your life. It sucks, but we are never promised happiness or fairness in this life.

NO! NO Mark! This sort of apathy and defeated attitude is exactly WHY this sort of thing happens. What you suggest might be smart, all things considered, for an individual in the very short term, but as ErikaO pointed out in post #75, it will lead to "bigger and better" crimes for these kids. These kids just learned a valuable lesson that bad behavior has NO consequences and the cops aren't gonna do JACK! Because of all this liability and fear of the righteous good man being persecuted or prosecuted, the bad people thrive, perfect their craft and make a great living out of crimes against the innocent. I don't remember what person said it, but the quote is something like this: "All that has to happen for evil to prosper, is for good men to do nothing". SOMETHING must be done. Every person must determine what their "comfort" level is, and how far they are willing to take it, but I, for one, will not stand by and do nothing when the law of the land fails miserably. I won't talk about what I've done or what I would do on a public forum, but these people would regret ever stepping foot in MY yard... And consequently would think long and hard about ever doing it to someone else... Crimes MUST be punished, one way or another, or our entire society will continue to crumble...

Here here i totaly agree with you Tom,

dont dare tresspass on my property and or even think about steeling from me you would not like the outcome. Im not gona say anymore as this is not the place to do so..

 

[Madkins007]

Sigh. This sort of thing ticks me off royally, but sometimes, the smart path is to count your blessings, cut your losses, prevent a recurrence and move on with your life. It sucks, but we are never promised happiness or fairness in this life.

NO! NO Mark! This sort of apathy and defeated attitude is exactly WHY this sort of thing happens. What you suggest might be smart, all things considered, for an individual in the very short term, but as ErikaO pointed out in post #75, it will lead to "bigger and better" crimes for these kids. These kids just learned a valuable lesson that bad behavior has NO consequences and the cops aren't gonna do JACK! Because of all this liability and fear of the righteous good man being persecuted or prosecuted, the bad people thrive, perfect their craft and make a great living out of crimes against the innocent. I don't remember what person said it, but the quote is something like this: "All that has to happen for evil to prosper, is for good men to do nothing". SOMETHING must be done. Every person must determine what their "comfort" level is, and how far they are willing to take it, but I, for one, will not stand by and do nothing when the law of the land fails miserably. I won't talk about what I've done or what I would do on a public forum, but these people would regret ever stepping foot in MY yard... And consequently would think long and hard about ever doing it to someone else... Crimes MUST be punished, one way or another, or our entire society will continue to crumble...

I'm just saying to pick your battles. Once you determine that no public agency will help and you decide to carry on the effort on your own, there are some things to consider.

1. Are you crossing a line? What they did was wrong. Is what you are thinking about any better when viewed by an impartial observer... such as a cop or judge?

2. Escalation sucks. Sure, you could carry out the retaliation, but there is always the chance that they will retaliate back- whether out of anger or honor or sheer cussedness. Then what?

3. What do you really want out of this and why? Some kids stole the turtles, and then they and the family treated the valuable animals like garbage but most were recovered. Do you want financial correction? Take them to small claims court. Do you want them prosecuted? You already know that will not happen. Do you want the kids 'scared straight'? I'd bet that there is not much you could do to them that is any worse than what society and their circumstances are already doing to them.

4. Some of it is also a more vague, 'personal energy' kind of thing. How much more of your life do you want to invest in this? Some people at some times of their lives have the energy to pursue matters like this, others do not. I don't think there is anything automatically noble about pursing what sounds like an already troubled group of kids, nor anything cowardly about saying 'screw it, I'm done' and moving on in situations like this.

There are times to dig in and wage war, and times to decide that you are not going to fight today. It is entirely your decision as to which it is for you today.

 

[dmmj]

Well if nothing else this thread is making me aware of whose property to not go onto.

 

[cmosuna]

Great news, as of today everyone is now back home with us!

 

[lisalove]

Yay!!!
Where was the last one?

 

[lynnedit]

That is incredible! Way to get the message out there.

 

[cljohnson]

WOW. Great news.
As I said before I was appalled by the response of both the authorities and the "parents".
Very impressed with with your diligence handling the situation and keeping us all posted.
So happy to see a positive ending to a story like this.

 

[froghaven5]

Awesome! So great to hear everyone is safe at home!

 

[SailingMystic]

Great news, as of today everyone is now back home with us!

Yes!! I was holding out hope for you to find the last one!! So it was the more mature female that made its way back after like 3 weeks or more??? How???