We can see our neighbour's garden from our kitchen (especially when I'm washing up, our kitchen looks right over their garden). I have seen some weird behaviour but today I was really disturbed to see my neighbour's son playing with a kitchen knife in the garden. I couldn't tell if he was home alone, but I guess he must have been because I doubt his parents would have allowed it. I'm not sure how old he is, maybe about 10?
He was cutting and stabbing plastic bottles, trying to stab through their shed (like he was thrusting a sword or something) and then started throwing the knife up in the air above his head! This isn't the first time I've seen him play with knives in the garden, last time I saw him throwing knives into the ground from the top of his climbing frame. I'm sure that they're not play knives, but actual kitchen knives, the look like metal.
I'm intimidated by him and I really worry for my toddler because I want to keep her far away from him.
Whenever he's misbehaved in the past his mum has shrugged it off with minimal apology and said "he has autism". He egged our windows, and although she paid for them to be cleaned that doesn't help with the underlying issue of his behaviour, because she doesn't seem very apologetic and both parents have blamed his behaviour on his autism. So has his younger sibling. I don't think it's fair on him for the parents to use his autism as some sort of shield for his misbehaviour, and in this case I think it's dangerous behaviour.
Should I report that he's been playing with a knife to someone, and if so who? I don't want to be an interfering neighbour but I'm really worried about my little girl's safety because our garden is right next to theirs and our door is next to theirs too so we see them coming and going. I don't want to make things awkward with our neighbours so I'd really rather report it anonymously, but I guess they'd probably figure out it's me anyway.
Or should I just keep it to myself and just be extra careful of my toddler?