Vandals strike our posts in Buttonwood
 

I am guessing that the rain has turned people to acting up, and taking their weather vengence out on our poor harmless light poles. Three of us at the far reaches of Buttonwood Run awoke to broken light fixtures. These are the fixtures with our names attached. The tops were removed, broken, flung into the yard, the light bulb removed and smashed in the road. Very polite young police offer came to the house before we had the opportunity to observe the poor broken pole. Others had called in the incident. What a pity people feel the need to destroy other's property. :( Sandra

So sorry to near that happened to you and others on your street. Shameful behavior... No matter who it may have been! Do the police have any ideas? Have there been any reports of other vandalism close? And, of course, it will be up to you to replace or restore the lamppost.

That really is terrible that vandalism would occur like that. Surprised no one woke up to the noise of lamp posts being broken and thrown around. Obviously, it was kids from outside The Villages who did it - I don't think Villager grandkids are down here yet for summer vacation. Is the area near non-Village property that is easily accessible to come in since you said it is on the far reaches of Buttonwood?

Not necessarily true.

and then there are the factors of targeted? Random? Is there any commonality of those whose property was damaged other than location?

btk

had it happen last year at our house in pennacamp in april

Senior or graduation antics?
 

Senior or graduation antics?

No, not necessarily true but more than likely it is true. I don't believe seniors are doing this to their neighbors even after a few drinks at Cody's.

As I said, I don't think schools are out yet (but I could be wrong) and grandkids are visiting the Villages yet.

If this happened at the edges of The Villages, I would say chances are it was kids from outlying areas like Wildwood or even the family section.

http://www.sumter.k12.fl.us/pdf/Calendars/Calendar.pdf

I know most Virginia schools out and Georgia too.

No common denominator
 

Well, we scratched our heads and commisserated with each other. My hubby is retired Detective from VA, one victim is a single lady of Hispanic name, other neighbor from Mass, and the last house is a rental with no-one home. If the perpetrator(s) are kids, they are TALL kids, as the light fixture tops were removed, then smashed, along with the light bulb - ie, someone tall enough to manage that feat (not me, I'm 5.2") Perhaps its those Early Bird Special Two-fer drinks goin down on the square?...... :) At least its only light fixtures. When hubby worked it was in a high crime city and MUCH more deadly events. We won't sweat the small stuff.

Sherlock Holmes
 

"Good Heavens!" "Who would associate crimes with these dear old homesteads."

Is this section on the way to a main road?? Could have just been some drunken bored partiers on their journey out of the Villages from Lake Sumter Landing.

surprised they dont have some video cams in place around TVs ,might be able to cut down on these kind of things..

Schools were out last week in the Jacksonville FL area

Hang around awhile, there will be some folks that say this kind of thing doesn't happen. An animal did it. :throwtomatoes:

Posh, you are toooooo funny
 

Yeh, that's it, an "animal" did it.............. Our road is not on the way out of TV, unless completely lost, oh yes, that could be it, someone found themselves in the Maze back here in the hinterlands and busted out lights out of frustration.:BigApplause:

Oh Sandra. So sorry it happened at all and hate to hear it happening to some of the nicest folks in The villages. The Posse will arm up and go beat the crap outa the perps. Girls?

Sandra. You are one of the posse! Bring the DAWGS too.

Yes! Yes! Yes! Ready to squirt the perps. And when we're done squirtin', we can beat the grap outa them.

Definitely count me in! And ta heck wid squoit guns .. we need the super soakers! Let's get 'em goils!!!!

Seriously, I'm sorry this happened. I hate vandalism. While it might be "minor", it is still gut wrenching to see, especially when it happens to you or your friends. Let's hope they find the perpetrators (and I'd bet more on visiting grandkids than locals -- have noticed a lot of kids in golf carts tooling around this week).

In case anyone hasn't noticed most 14 year olds are already taller than the majority of TV'ers:)

What is the payback? This is the second incident. Every year at holiday/vacation time the greens of some golf courses have been torn up, incidents of equipment at rec centers being stolen or damaged etc...........

Video cams on every light post??

They have GRAP in them????

Why is this happening?
 

I thought it was supposed to be so safe here?? Should we have a security system installed? I thought in TV we didn't have to worry about such things. If they do this they will break into our houses. This is not the picture that is painted by the developer in all the advertising.

sigh.

You said it! Truly amazing.

Always a bummer when stuff like that happens. Makes you wonder the motivation..... I suspect they are not the brightest bulbs and they are just mad at others....

Just so you know, I already checked and it is illegal to wire the light cover to AC power even at a lower amperage that would only stun :evil6:

The lights
 

Probably not related but I went to clean my outside light glass touched it and the whole top fell over hanging by the wires. The set screws were on top of the pole not into the pole.

I was not happy over that almost smashed the unit. A high wind would have blown it off easy.

response to Red Chariot
 

I understand your concern that TV is touted to be a safe community. I think it is a very safe community. However, it is not isolated, it is not guarded, it is not covered in a bubble and it is not without neighboring communities as well as probably some of its own resident deviants. There is no where one can go where nothing happens. We live in a small community North of Seattle (until we get to our new home in TV hopefully in October) and we have 1000 people in our town, no street lights, no businesses and no police force. We contract with neighboring communities for emergency services. Almost nothing happens. Almost. And when it does, there is panic. When our garage was robbed it was like the crime of the year for the contracted police. No where has no crime. It needs to be addressed when it happens, but no one should be under an illusion that they are insulated, protected and immune from the world as a whole when they move to The Villages or they move to Woodway, Washington! Life happens wherever you are-health issues, family, personal intrustions, disappointments. Let's hope that TV stays organized to address these matters as they occur to keep them from increasing or becoming a common occurrence. Neighborhood awareness is the best deterrant to any crime. Keep your eyes open, your doors locked and your neighbors phone numbers close at hand, in case they need you or you need them!

About 7 years ago we had 20 houses on Riley Street that had the tops of their light fixtures broken. We all thought it was vandalism. It might have been.

But like Car Guy noted, we finally realized how cheap the fixture were. Maybe just rain and wind had done the damage. We replaced the light fixture and never had any other problems. The sales people at Lowes made a comment on how cheap the Villages fixtures were...

As stated by others TV is a fairly safe community however things do happen Just ride around, people leave their garage doors open even very early in the morning, leave golf clubs on the golf cart, leave keys in the golf carts have even seen groceries or shopping bags left in the golf carts, We have to be a little careful times are tough for a lot of people. That doesn't explain the original posters problem but it could be anyone on or off property that did this. Think back to last year with the paint ball incident that turned out to be outsiders. Recently it was reported about the crime spree of appliance robberies from the model homes and homes under construction. I think by the size of this community we have a very low crime rate and even the number of accidents is very low with the amount of vehicles on the roads. I don't feel the builder is being misleading, there is no bubble over this community and stuff happens. JMO

All elementary/middle and high schools in suburban Chicago are done for the year, also schools in northern Kentucky (suburban Cincinnati), eastern Iowa and southwestern Wisconsin.

:BigApplause:

Bring em on.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldQrapQ4d0Y]Toby Keith - As Good As I Once Was - YouTube[/ame]


:wave::wave::wave:

AMEN!!!! It has indeed been very windy here. Thank you for mentioning this possibility.

There indeed could have been kids from the area or from anywhere I suppose. However it could have been Villagers too. We are not all wonderful neighbors.
I have heard some mean people around here and I would not put it past them. Fortunately that is NOT the norm....but it is reality.

Plus it is not always kids! We give kids a bad rap, perhaps because we were all kids once upon a time and apparently know that mischief happens a little more often.

I know a lot of kids in the area and I know a lot of the families in the neighboring communities. They would be very sad if they heard that Villagers thought this way of them. These "kids" are children of the people that work so hard to make The Villages what it is! They are the children of our doctors, our lawn workers, or district govt, our schools staff, our grocery store workers, our hairdressers, our chefs, our rest. servers, our nurses, our Fire Dept., need I go on?

They all live in the family villages or the neighboring communities. I for one appreciate them all because they make The Villages wonderful for us!

What?

No matter where you live, there is always some sort of a crime. TV is not in a bubble and you just have to be aware of this. I'm sure this incident was not done by villagers and we are not a "gated" community, so anyone can come in here day or night.

We must all remember, most private communities or small cities don't have anything like TOTV to rant and rave on. When someone posts a thread about their lawn being mowed too short, their streak being too well done, a restaurants slow service or vandalism everyone knows about it. So when something disturbing does happen it becomes magnified. Supposed your home town had a site like this? If you were aware of everything going on, you may have moved years before you did.

Is the damage the result of a crime, poor workmanship, or the beginning of ground movement? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm. "When you eliminate the impossible whatever remains, however, improbale, is the truth" sherlock Holmes

Could it be a communist plot?:22yikes:

It could also be one of those there prehistoric birds trying to sit on their lamp posts:D