1+-/??/96  A young adult visitor to the unauthorized though supposedly related tenant at my lower flat across the street killed himself with a .357 magnum gunshot through the side of his head.  The bullet grazed the kitchen/middle hallway door framing, the kitchen wall & ceiling and landed in the middle of the kitchen floor.  The tenant said the police didn't notice the framing scratch.  Having become completely depressed over this supposedly best tenant (out of 15 in the 3 flats in only 4 years), a newly retired U. S. Navy gunnersmate, having also lied about his rental intentions, I waited for them to tell me the story.  The brother of the renter did the next day.

The police never contacted me as the owner, even though I was home at the time directly across the street.  To this day, I don't know the 'official' version of what happened.  These tenants moved out at the end of May after having Warner Cable drill holes in two outside walls in a flat that was already cable ready through the basement.  Needless to say, neither Warner Cable nor these tenants bothered to contact me, the owner, across the street.  I deducted $100 from the Security Deposit for each hole.  My new rental agreement indicates that I'll automatically deduct $100 for each new hole made in my property by cable installers.  This one flat has been "installed" a half-dozen times!  This last time, the installer also damaged the unrepairable asbestos shingles covering the side of the house - all unnecessary in a lower flat accessible through the basement.  This was the third installation alone for the rear bedroom.

1/20/96 Saturday.  The well liked bicyclist has his 14th birthday party in Buster's basement - $1.00 admission.  Apparently, one of the easiest ways to get kids on your side is to provide the facility where they can have parties and smoke marijuana.  That's aside from the natural predisposition for children from dysfunctional families to congregate merely for them being the only ones running all over the neighborhood without supervision at all hours.  The kids with the least involved parents are the ones with the most freedom to network with other kids of similar backgrounds.

2/4/96:  Yet another   devastates the NW corner of 40th & Meinecke in our neighborhood.  From the looks, it appears to be another "untended children" playing with matches in an attic converted apartment.  Looking at a map of our Inner City, one quickly discovers that a lot of the now empty lots used to be duplexes converted into triplexes.  In other words, the higher the population density of children in poverty stricken areas, the higher the likelihood of fires being started therein.  [ Duh?! - the reason being that poor single parents having to work at low wage jobs can't afford to pay others to attend to their children -- neither do they have extended families able to do so --- neither is the neighborhood stable enough for the parent to look to it for support.  Some parents do live on blocks which have support networks which allow children to mingle and play under the supervision of caring, non-abusive adults who also are willing to be out and about keeping it all safe - some newly arrived parents do not discover that fact before they move off the block. ]
    (Note the mail drop box on the corner that was removed subsequent to this fire.  The 1955 photo of my older brother, Tom, and his friend shows that box and the front portion of the fine old house that existed back then.  There used to even be a regular 'pick-up' mailbox on that corner, too.)

7/96  A couple dozen pieces chipped off the lower front concrete steps at my rental duplex across the street were found in my rear yard on the other side of the street.  I didn't realize until a couple weeks later that the damage had been done to the steps and didn't relate the rocks to the damage for another day or so.  In fact, I even heard the chipping being done one night.  This was the time I was so depressed about everything happening in the neighborhood I didn't bother to go outside to discover what this 'latest' noise was all about.  Too bad I didn't.  Would probably have discovered it was Buster doing it.  (It should be noted that, to this day, not one neighbor has come forward to say that they saw it happen, although the noise was loud enough to hear from inside my rear bedroom with the windows closed.)

8/6/96 A rock was thrown at my siding by a newly resident youth in the upper flat next door.  It may have been instigated by Buster, who tells all new kids on the block I'm the neighborhood pervert and that I have anal sex with cats.  Something passed along to me verbally by a 59 year old grandmother on 7/27/97!

8/11/96  Found a piece of what looks like a washing machine part in my side yard.  It made a distinctive impression in the aluminum siding on that side of the house and had a trajectory as though sling-shot off the upper front porch next door.  After hearing excuses from the grandmother supposedly in charge of the children thereat, I informed the lower flat owner occupant, who claimed he couldn't do anything about his tenants, that I would hold him financially responsible for damages to my property.  Nothing has happened since then that I know of.

8/21/96  Found a bike brake in the shrubs of the same side yard.  It had probably been thrown at my siding/windows during the same period from the 6th through the 11th detailed above.

9/17/96  Another piece of the lower front concrete steps across the street was found in my rear yard on the other side of the street.  The kids generally use the rear yard two houses north as a common playground.  That's the same house where the adult garage burglar lived and where the son of his girlfriend tore the shingles off the roof to throw in my yard and elsewhere.  A couple of those black shingles were found today, too.

9/28/96  The two sisters and their pre-school cousin helped serve the food for the volunteer painters in the local   paint-out.  I worked in the kitchen - mostly doing dishes and pre- and post-cleaning of utencils.  After serving the breakfast, including, lastly, to us volunteers, the three girls went out and helped paint, too.  We went to the closest MacDonald's, 26 blocks away, for lunch - me being very impressed with their additonal, volunteer painting efforts.

11/6/96  Found an "Instant Krazy Glue" pen laying on top of a stand by the side garage door.  Don't know if someone was attempting to use it on the door or what.  Both the front side yard and rear alley gates at both of my properties are locked with four same-keyed Masterlock padlocks, so anyone in the yard has to climb over the fences to do so - a deliberate trespass.  The yards are secured to minimize the destruction caused when they aren't.  Burglars especially like to say they were just passing through.  Having been burglarized three times, securing the yards is a prudent precaution.

11/7/96 pictureX1 The car 'borrowing' youth hammered various garage doors in his alley.  He expecially liked to hammer at the previously fire damaged garage two houses north of him both before and after it was rehabilitated.  Both garage and house were empty for 3 years.

11/10/96  Found a live, fully encased, 3 1/2 inch long .300 Weatherby Magnum rifle shell on my front lawn.  Don't know if it's someone's attempt at intimidation or what.  Have in the past found all kinds of live ammunition, especially shotgun shells, in the alleys and on the street - but very seldom in my yard.  Spent round brass casings are as common as pennies in some neighborhoods or at certain times of the year.  When remembered and handy, the accumulated ammunition is turned over to police offices (willing to accept them - not all do) in the neighborhood for some other reason.

(various)  Eggs have been thrown at the front porches and storm doors of both of my properties.  Probably Buster, since he's old enough to have a better aim than the 5/6 year olds.  I've never observed eggs outdoors - thrown or unthrown - just the residue, which was still visible on the aluminum siding as of August 1998. 12/4/96  Someone rang the doorbell at 3:00 am.  I don't answer the front door in the middle of the night when there are no witnesses about.  Too many drunks, burglars, drug addicts and other miscreants wander this neighborhood to take unnecessary chances.  (And, if you answer the door for one bum, every other bum in the area will begin ringing the bell REGARDLESS of whether any are successful at getting anything by doing so.)

12/5/96  Discovered the old heavy duty gutter bent out at the southwest corner of the upper front porch across the street.  Last night's doorbell may have been the tenant coming home after forgetting his key.  Wasn't informed of same but did fix the gutter on the 11th.

12/23/96  Found an OFFICIAL NOTICE from the "Division of Meters & Services" of the Milwaukee Water Works requiring access to install a new 'remotely readable' water meter.  Didn't notice where the street shut-off valve was located when this work was done - should have -- can't find it, now, in 2004.  • $1birthdayParty  • .300MagnumAmmunitionFound  • bikeBrakeThrown  • blackShingles  • burglary  • burglaryPrevention  • bushesAsPlayground  • cableInstallDamage  • chippedSteps  • damageToBushes  • eggsThrown  • fatherDoesNothing  • fireAtTriplex  • graffitiPaintOut  • gutterDamage  • hammeringDamage  • InstantKrazyGlue  • learningToDrive  • liveShellFound  • MachinePartThrown  • midnightDoorbell  • padlockedGates  • pervert  • policeDisrespect  • PresClintonTalks  • rockThrown  • sexWithCats!  • stolenCars  • suicide  • triplexBurns  • ventPipingBroken  • WeatherbyMagnum.300 |hood

Website link/location/URL: http://www.KidsRiot.com/kids96.htm or http://www.Jamrent.com/ic/kids96.htm