To hope one of them blows their fucking fingers off?

[QuestionableMouse]

I've already rang the police.

For the last few nights, there has been a gang of lads fucking about on a bit of waste land near my house. They're probably a half a mile away across a big field but it's really quiet here and the sound travels. It sounds like they're blowing spray paint cans or something up, and there's a fire that I can see. I'm so fucking, fucking sick of it.

The only problem is the police can't catch them because the little fuckers are on dirt bikes and just vanish across the fields while the police are stuck on the road (and also, due to where I live, it takes a police car ages to get here.) I've rang the police on them three times alone in the past two weeks.

Aibu to hope one of them blows their nuts off so they'll pack it in?

Have a truly shitty, not at all to scale diagram.

Blue is the houses (mine has the red dot) green is the field which is at least half a mile wide. Yellow is the waste ground, red is the fuckers.

Yanbu.. at all!

Get a spy drone and film everything. Maybe a drone that fires missiles?

No, you are not unreasonable. Pray for rain.

Quite like your diagram, BTW: assumed the red cross was a church, but from another angle it looks like Pope Francis walking on the other side of a hedge.

@Iamthewombat

Get a spy drone and film everything. Maybe a drone that fires missiles?

No, you are not unreasonable. Pray for rain.

Quite like your diagram, BTW: assumed the red cross was a church, but from another angle it looks like Pope Francis walking on the other side of a hedge.

Pope Francis gets an ASBO

Sadly just my terrible drawing skills.

It's so fucking annoying. I just want to go to bed but have to stay up until the police get here. I'm also sick of hearing the fucking dirt bikes.

The farmer has done his best to block access too - he put up a fence and they cut it. Then he dug a ditch and they pulled the fence to bits to cobble together a bridge.

Apparently there's loads of plastic wire casing and waste left on the waste ground. Farmer thinks it's criminal activity but the police have no chance of catching them because they always send a car that can't go off road. It's been going on since the summer but has picked up this last few weeks.

Surely they will get bored? I hope so, good luck.

I imagine they're bored as all fuck.

Teens fucking around are very annoying and so for that YANBU.

I assume you're not actually wanting them to have their fingers/ bollocks blown off!

Bored teenagers. I feel sorry for them rn. It's the farmer's job to keep them off his land and you need to be more persistent with him. He clearly hasn't done his best, he's made a pathetic couple of attempts to keep them away.

YANBU, ferral kids like that are a pain in the arse. There are similar issues each summer, in a wooded area I walk through most days. The fire brigade often have to put out fires which bored teenagers light for their own amusement. They also leave litter everywhere. I suppose there have always been anti social teens, but maybe they have more time on their hands these days, so cause more problems. Are they old and/or rough enough to be intimidating? If you have the confidence could you and your DH stride over and film them with your cameras, every time they appear? Make it clear you will be showing the videos to the police. Perhaps the younger/less cocky ones will not want their parents finding out, so the group might move somewhere else. Or you could just walk around them constantly, silently filming them, to freak them out a bit. If they challenge you just say you've been asked by the police to gather evidence. I'll admit I wouldn't have the confidence to do these things, but in theory perhaps it could work. Other than that I guess you just have to hope the weather turns nasty - they'll not hang around much then.

There's no way I'm walking over to a random group of men, across half a mile of pitch black field, to confront them. I live here alone and my partner is an hour away. They don't sound like teens but older and yes, the sound rough as fuck.

@WelcomeToGreenvale My sympathy for bored teenagers evaporates when they damage property, light fires, leave litter everywhere and generally behave like anti social thugs. All teenagers get bored at times, but that's no excuse for anti social behaviour.

I’d approach the local council, they may have more clout to get the police and farmer to take more effective measures. Such as large concrete blocks at the entrance to the field.
Get your neighbours involved too, the more people complaining the more likely something will be done.
Wishing you very cold and rainy weather OP

@WelcomeToGreenvale

Bored teenagers. I feel sorry for them rn. It's the farmer's job to keep them off his land and you need to be more persistent with him. He clearly hasn't done his best, he's made a pathetic couple of attempts to keep them away.

Not sure what else he can do. The fence is really well done and very sturdy but they just came back with saws and cut it down to get access. The ditch is as big as allowed and it didn't stop them.

A moat? Electric fencing? Metal fencing is out because it's a conservation area.

@SilverBirchWithout

I’d approach the local council, they may have more clout to get the police and farmer to take more effective measures. Such as large concrete blocks at the entrance to the field. Get your neighbours involved too, the more people complaining the more likely something will be done. Wishing you very cold and rainy weather OP

It's a conservation area so no blocks allowed AFAIK. He did have some big boulders but they're on dirt bikes and just go over/around.

Still no sign of the police and I'm shattered - I've been up since 5am 😭😭😭

It's the farmer's job to keep them off his land and you need to be more persistent with him. He clearly hasn't done his best, he's made a pathetic couple of attempts to keep them away.

I've heard it all now! It's not the farmer's "job" to keep them off his land - they shouldn't be on his land in the first place. They are surely trespassing, and isn't that a crime? If not, you have rather odd laws in the UK.

The police need (dirt) bikes too. It does annoy me had this in the past, where the police only use the traditional route/method, despite being told they use X or y e.g. a laneway & are long gone. Catch them & impound the bikes (for ever).

CCTV cameras could be an option, sounds like criminal damage to the farmers fencing.

Electric fencing on the mains? Garrote type wires hung at a convenient height? A few blasts with a shotgun into the air might help? A pack of wolves? Some cows with calves. A ram?

I bet the police know who they are.

Does the farmer have a gun? Cowpats? Electric fences? A bull?

The farmer must be fucking livid with all this

Sorry OP, I didn't realise they were grown men, rather than kids. (Anyway, some teens can be intimidating when they're the size of adults). In that case, ignore my suggestion - not worth the risk. The drone camera might be an idea, unless they've got air rifles and might shoot it down.

The farmer must be sick of it all. Maybe he needs to get together with the nearby neighbours and come up with a plan of action... strength in numbers and all that. He might need to throw some serious money at it, with secure fencing that can't be easily broken down, and/or concrete blocks to stop them entering the land. If it affects his livelihood he will either sort it, or sell up. My sympathies OP, this is a horrible situation.

He is! The waste land isn't his but belongs to a company. It used to have a shed on it that was demolished and its just been left since. The company refuse to take any responsibility for it-maybe if it was fenced, they wouldn't be able to get on.

Cctv was discussed but it's pitch black on a night here so apparently it wouldn't work? (Parish Council decided that one!)

@Defenbaker it's honestly crap. It makes me feel so on edge as soon as I hear the bikes. Another gang came round a few years ago on dirt bikes and broke into all the cars in the street so the noise really worries me! (luckily I don't keep anything valuable in the car but it cost me for a new window!)

"Conservation area so no blocks allowed"? Bollocks to that! Sometimes the law is an ass. The farmer is morally within his rights to protect his land and livestock in whatever way is needed to stop these yobs from trespassing. There's a chance he could end up being served a notice to remove any items that don't fit the regulations, then he might end up with a fine if he refuses to comply, but perhaps by that point the thugs will have moved on somewhere else (or be in prison).

Chuck a load of tacks on the bit of waste ground that they come in on ( not on the farmers field) - a couple of punctures should put them off. You can spend a morning picking them up once they've gone.