Man tries to press charges against teens who snuck into his pool; cops resist. UPDATED

We all know the movie trope: a bunch of high schoolers throw a rager in a neighbor's pool, or a popular kid's unparented home. The whole town of teens is invited for a round of underaged drinking, the place is left a mess, it's an amazing memory for the kids, but a nightmare for the homeowners.

Well, that trope isn't all fictional. These ragers happen in real life, which means there are adult pool owners genuinely shaking their fists at the sky over a bunch of unruly teens.

In a popular post on the AITA subreddit, a man asked if he was wrong for pressuring the police to press charges against a bunch of teens who used his pool.

He wrote:

AITA for bullying the police into pressing charges against a bunch of kids?

First and most importantly, I’m not here for legal advice. I’m here to see if I’m the AH. Second, this is my property that I have a mortgage on. It’s not community or city property. This past winter, I had a pool installed at my house. After the pool installation, I had my old fence removed and installed new fences that met with the city code for a residential pool.

My new fence is higher than my old one and the gates have approved locks. About a month ago I had to travel for work and was gone for about two weeks. I came back to find my backyard trashed and it seems someone had a pool party while I was gone. The locks on my gates were broken but luckily no one broke into my house.

I checked my security cameras and saw at least 20 teens having an all-day party that lasted late into the night. I did not give permission for anyone to be at my house so I was mad. My cameras are HD so their faces were clearly visible and i recognized some from the neighborhood. I went to the police and submitted a copy of the recordings and tried to file a report.

The cops did their best to try to talk my out of it but I pressed them on it until they relented and took a report. Weeks passed by and I heard nothing so I called them to find out nothing has been done. I got angry and threaten to sue unless they got off their behinds and enforce the laws. I should point out I live in a town of about 2000 people and nothing ever happens here.

The cops are not understaffed or too busy on other cases. I also know I probably can’t sue the cops into doing their jobs but I lose nothing by threatening a lawsuit and I was mad at the time. Finally, they got some of the teens seen on my security video but again they tried to talk me out of pressing charges. I was adamant and insisted they file charges.

When my girlfriend found out about the situation, she said I should have let it go and we got into an argument about it. My own mother thinks I’m being a bully by forcing the cops to file charges against some teens who just wanted to throw a party. Virtually everyone I know is making me out to be some grumpy guy with a score to settle and I kid you not, everyone in my life is trying to talk me out of it.

They’re worried about me destroying these teens’ future over a pool party. I don’t know when it became okay to break into someone’s property. Right now it feels like it’s me against the entire world.

People had a lot of clarifying questions and comments.

YDoEyeNeedAName wrote:

NTA, Trespassing, destruction of property, thankfully no one drowned or was injured. And F the police for not doing their jobs. You're not in the wrong or a bully for enforcing your property rights.

Baileythenerd wrote:

NTA OP, that's your property. You are paying for it. Those entitled little s#$ts thought they'd help themselves to it since you weren't around and trashed your property after breaking into your back yard. I'm not saying these kids need jail time, but they need to learn that actions have consequences.

A fine or community service is a good way to make sure they understand it's not okay to help themselves to other's property just because they want it. I'd ABSOLUTELY do the same thing, and I'm not even a grumpy old man.

Plane_Acanthisitta96 wrote:

Dude NTA but I'd be careful about retaliation a friend's uncle lives in Alabama and something similar happened and after he forced the cops to do their jobs.

He started getting pulled over all the time and had his vehicle searched multiple times he also started getting citations and fines for dumb s#$t like garbage can being too close to the road or his license plate cover being too big even though the tags were perfectly readable or taillights being too dirty.

TheRalphExpress wrote:

NTA, but be aware that this is one of those subjects where even though people here will absolutely back you up, people in the small town you live in will absolutely see you as “the asshole who had kids arrested for having a party”, and their feelings and judgment will absolutely play a bigger part in your day to day life than the ones here.

You’re well within your rights to go forward with the charges, but if I were you I’d consider the pros and cons of pressing charges, as well as the pros and cons of not pressing charges. From my POV, I’d rather let this one slide and avoid decades of glares when you’re about town.

After receiving equal parts support and perspective, OP jumped on with an update.

I’m so glad I posted my situation here. Many of you pointed out that the cops might know the kids so that’s why they’re dragging the case. I never thought of that because I’ve only lived here for 2 years. You all opened my eyes!

I called my buddy who grew up and still lives here so I invited him to dinner tonight. I asked him about my situation and showed him my security vid. He immediately said about half of the HS senior class was in the vid (his kids are in the same HS) and he recognized the daughter and niece of the mayor.

He also told me he thinks a couple of the kids belong to the local prominent families one of which owns one of the local grocery stores. We talked about it and I decided to take your advice and drop my complaint in exchange for the parents paying the damages. I’ll call the cops tomorrow about it.

There is a post below about someone’s uncle living in Oklahoma who made a complaint and subsequently got pulled over repeatedly for phantom traffic violations. That really opened my eyes and I definitely do not want that to happen to me.

It sounds like OP made the wisest choice for his own experience in the town.