Teenage Pranksters Vs. Streamlight TL-3

I've been feeling a little burned out from work and having worked the last 2 weekends in a row. I decided to sit in the park after work with a cigar and some Starbucks. It's been over a year since I last had a good cigar.

It was dark, 8pm, but the park was still open. There were at least a dozen teenagers (14-16yo) gathered in the park, loitering under one pavilion. Some of the kids where just standing and talking, while others were skateboarding. I kept my distance and picked a bench far enough away from them. Well, at the time I thought it was far enough away.

After a few minutes of sitting and smoking, I notice 2 of them casually walking closer to my location. Feeling uncomfortable and outnumbered, I slowly draw my pepper gel from its belt holster and quietly move it to my jacket pocket. The 2 kids stop 150 ft. away from me and light a couple of bottle rockets that fly over a nearby baseball field that was unoccupied. Then they run back to their pavilion, laughing all the way.
Another few minutes pass. One kid casually walks in my direction stops 75 feet away from me. He plants one bottle rocket in the grass, lights it, and trots away laughing. It flew for only 3 feet never really clearing the grass. Watching the direction of its brief flight, I saw it was clearly intended for me.
I drew my Streamlight TL-3 and lit him up. He breaks into a run. At this point I was wishing I had fresher CR-123s loaded. I sweep the light across the whole group under the pavilion. I hear one female juvenile voice from the group, "WAS THAT A COP?" All the kids scatter, running in all directions.

All but one person remains in the pavilion. He continues to watch me from afar for a few more minutes while I make a cell phone call to the PD dispatch. He casually walks away by the time I finish the call.
I finish smoking my cigar while I wait for the police to arrive. After 15 minutes, still no police, I decided it was time to leave. As a precaution, I walk a different route back to my car and drive a different route back home.

Now it's time to really decompress before it starts all over again at work tomorrow morning. Thanks for reading.

I know every generation complains about the kids...and I know there were punks when I was a kid...but I NEVER thought about messing with people or destroying their property. I just don't understand the mentality...hope you at least enjoyed that cigar

CostcoAAcells said:

All but one person remains in the pavilion.

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You mean only one?

Nice job with the beam sweep. Next time you'll have to dress in a dark trench coat and wear a hat. You'd really have them wondering then...

Don`t know if it`s because of my bad english but I don`t get the point for calling the police?????
Sorry if I missed something.

Perphaps just in case the kids decide to do something else stupid.

call me cold, but when I read the title of this thread, I was hoping that you had administered some wood shampoo and did some crenulated combing of the guy's head.

Wow! one of them intentionally pointed a bottle rocket at you? dang...

great story riviting loved it awsome!punks.:goodjob:

Recently, I had a project in Florida, and took my family to Disney world to the Swan and Dolphin for a few days.

The first night there, about 10 teenagers were hanging around the fake beach they have there, drinking and stuff like that. The beach/pool area was dark as it was after midnight.

After a while, I had enough, and went out on the balcony with my SF Kroma and lit hem up with the red LED's on high, then the white on high.

They all freaked out and ran different directions. It was very funny, and I could not sleep after, it was just so funny.

All it took was that red light.

Best,

RedLed

I hate youth. I deal with a lot of them little p*ckerheads at my job.

im 27 and im an "am" skateboarder - kids like this give skateboarding a bad name

try to remember it was everything else - not skateboarding

of course we all know that 'youth' in this case just refers to the suburban mid teens with no direction. Some people mature past that, some dont. If those kids think they're so badass maybe they should pull that stuff in downtown LA. Maybe when one of them gets shot or beat up they'll learn.
Guess that TL3 paid for itself. cool story, sorry it ruined your break. Now i kind of want my annual Honduran cigar, and i happen to be headed to starbucks too.

boosterboy said:

call me cold, but when I read the title of this thread, I was hoping that you had administered some wood shampoo and did some crenulated combing of the guy's head.

Click to expand...

A crenulating comb? If it's circular, they'll know it was you. If it's shaped like a duck, you can blame it on Martha Stewart.

Yeah kids have nothgin to do these days that interests them besides being annoying, I admit I was an annoying kid, but just like SEJVAAR I would NEVER think of hurting, endangering anyone, or destroying property...that was just the way I was brought up, infact every year on goosey night, or cabbage night, dependign on where your from, you know the time right before halloween where the kids like to mess with people and use toilet papaer and other thigns like eggs....Anyway me and my friends use to stand guard at our houses looking out for kids like this, and if they tried to mess with our homes we would throw skunk sacks at them lol...yes you heard right, my best friend for many years was a hunter, I never liked huntign but him and his father were big time hunters, and he use to kills skunks too (I never liked killing any animals, but thats besides the point) he would skin the skunk and save the hide, but he woudl also keep there sack of "juice" in tact in a bucket in his garage...anyway you could imagine getting hit with a water ballon but smelling like crap for the next week, lol, it was a great deterent...

Anyway kids will be kids, but some kids just go to far...and in many cases ruin a good time, sorry to hear your experience, on a side not I think that the general public dont expect average citizens to be carrying a flashlight, especially a bright one, so in my expereince when your light up a street or some people they always think your law enforcment and its usually makes them scatter...which is a good thing!

Too bad you didn't have a Tanklight in your pocket! Or a USL--guess thats a bit more realistic...:laughing:

As long as they don't start calling my lights

"high powered, military-style, fully-automatic assault lights" because some psycho uses one as a weapons light in a shooting, I'm happy.

Yes, it's true, they don't expect the average citizen to carry a light that strong (or as I call it, a light that illuminates my immediate FOV)

Photon assult rifles. I carry one in my bag, hope the police don't catch me!

mmm, a cigar does sound good. The Tl-3 does do a good job of inpersonating a cop's light. If you run it on 17500's, you can always have fresh good light.

Although closer to 40 than 20... myself, I would encourage all to try to remember that bottle rockets are really pretty harmless and kids will always be kids.

I don't really understand. There are some kids out causing some trouble but not really hurting anyone, so why call the cops on them? The cops apparently understand this (having not shown up). If the kids are a nuissance, why not speak to them -educate them- instead?
I wouldn't be pepper spraying any 14 yr olds, maybe things are different where you live, but I can't see any justification for it.

The light is a great tool, all I'm saying is that I'd have probably lit up the one that had lit the bottle rocket, approach, and speak to him (perhaps as though you were a cop). As that this doesn't really solve the problem, they'll just be back another time...