MASON CITY – In what has become an annual tradition, teens celebrated a Mohawk homecoming football loss to Fort Dodge by taking to the parks and neighborhoods in Mason City Friday night, and it wasn’t all about school spirit.
Driving through East Park after 10 PM, there were several groups of what appeared to be teens, males and females, dressed in black, on foot, walking or running here and there.
Near the Highland neighborhood, a loudspeaker could be heard warning youngsters to disperse. This was in the area of the 700 – 800 block of 12th Street NE.
Mason City Police Sgt. Greg Scott said Saturday morning that police on patrol will typically try to move people along at those hours and the loudspeaker is one technique to do that.
One teen, a freshman, told NIT that “there were kids with crowbars threatening adults,” in one area he had just arrived home from. “Others had eggs and toilet paper. The football team was involved. They weren’t messing around.”
Sgt. Scott said police received a report of juveniles with paint balls in East Park. “They were sent home by MCPD. They may have been shooting at other kids. The paint balls were confiscated near the 700 block of 3rd Street NE, 1 block south of East Park.”
Another woman called police to complain about chocolate syrup on her car Saturday morning.
In another incident, a Cerro Gordo County Sheriff’s Deputy reported that he was driving eastbound near the intersection of 4th Street SE and Kentucky Avenue when a pumpkin was thrown from an oncoming vehicle and struck his patrol vehicle. A Juvenile referral was made for Criminal Mischief/Vandalism.
Other callers told police that teens were running around neighborhoods. “There was a house egged at the 1400 block of North Washington.”
Sgt. Scott said there was no other major or notable property damage so far reported to police.
“Considering the egg wars of 1995-1996, things have slowed down some,” Sgt. Scott noted. “And we lost the football game, too.”
“Seriously people! Get a life and loosen up! It’s toilet paper for gosh sake. If you have to get off your high horse and pick up a couple pieces of tp, it’s not going to kill you.”
You miss the point. That is a person’s private property. Unless you are invited onto it, you have no business being there, much less damaging it.
Since I was not the person who put it there, why should I be the one paying the consequences?
You write as if this is some sort of third-world country where there are no rights, and there are no consequences for anti-social behaviors. Where people don’t care much for how they live, and have no respect for other people.
Well if you haven’t noticed, that model of society never works. And it hardly brings prosperity or investment.
Also the toilet paper is still floating around in neighborhoods all over town. Why don’t these wonderful parents get their kids together on a Sunday after the festivities and clean up? Otherwise stop with the cute “they are just kids having fun” activities okay? Set a good example and maybe your kid won’t be such a misfit when they grow up.
“Racking up a shotgun”??? Haha way to try to sound BA. And I love the people talking about using your gun to threaten some kids on your property. You may want to take a look at the law if you plan on actually using that gun because of some kids TP’ing. You’d be in jail for a looooong time.
The sound of racking up a shotgun gets the kids off of my property pretty quick.
Seriously people! Get a life and loosen up! It’s toilet paper for gosh sake. If you have to get off your high horse and pick up a couple pieces of tp, it’s not going to kill you. I’m sure the exercise would be good for you. And if you see the tp in an elderly person’s yard, suck it up, do the right thing, and pick it up for them instead of bitching about it online.
No wonder kids today have so much trouble being coherent. And I mean talking in a logically consistent way. That, you learn at home and I feel sorry for kids that live in an environment where that may not be possible.
Are you getting “off your high horse and pick up a couple pieces of tp, it’s not going to kill you. I’m sure the exercise would be good for you.”
Yes, I had to pick up some tp that blew into my yard and no it didn’t kill me. I thought it was harmless fun and thought the kids did a great job at tping the neighbors tree.
But you didn’t come over to MY house and pick it up did you. “Suck it up, do the right thing, and pick it up for them instead of bitching” that I find that tp’ing is vandalism and those who commit it are tresspassing.
If you were my elderly neighbor, you would already know that I did pick it up out of her yard and again with the bitching. Blah, Blah, Blah
But again you didn’t come an pick it up in MY yard. Why not? Lazy? Or didn’t you want to clean up these little vandal’s mess? I mean you seem to think it’s nothing, right?
Lazy? That’s like the pot calling the kettle black.
But YOU are not coming over and cleaning up the little miscreants “fun” in my yard. I mean if its supposed to be fun and all, I’d think you want to join in. But I suppose it really isn’t that much fun now is it.
mcsupporter sounds like the type that just wants the kids to like him. Get a life.
You are all a bunch of cry babies who don’t remember what it is like to have fun. You should all get out of your houses more and loosen up. If you have to pick up some toilet paper it’s not the end of the world.
There’s still crap blowing around our neighborhood from the idiots that tpd the wrong house.
“Quite traditional to teepee the football players houses and other students as well.”
So it’s traditional to violate the rights of another person’s property based upon it being a “tradition”?
What about the American tradition to protect your property from vandals? Our constitution says it is a basic right which is guaranteed.
Will you still feel so light hearted when I have your son or daughter arrested for trespassing and criminal damage to property? Will you still be laughing when you have to bail them out? Or when you have to take time from work to show up in court?
Just because you do not care about where you live, or how it looks, does not mean I have to accept that same standard.
Seriously, arrest kids and bail them out? Were you ever a kid once? The way you’re acting makes YOU sound immature opposed to the kids doing this.
All the more reason for Mason City to have a curfew. Besides, whatever happened to that concept any way??
Are any of you people on here the parent of that kid that wore the vagina t-shirt (if that is what is says for sure, go look at it) during the festivities that they are talking about on the home page? Just checkin. Guess I’m gonna need that one explained to me too parents. I did google that and found there are all kinds of shirts like that to buy. Should society have some norms or should we all “just have fun?”
He should have been made to change, turn the shirt inside, out or something. It’s just plain disrespectful and tacky.
Take a look around at what most communities around Mason City do to celebrate Homecoming. Decorate car windows, pep rally, powder puff football game, dance,teepeeing… Quite traditional to teepee the football players houses and other students as well. Some kids carry it too far and resort to other vandalism but the teepeeing is really pretty harmless fun that doesn’t cause too much of a mess.
Why don’t the kids that do this “harmless fun” go back the next afternoon and make sure everything is picked up?
I’m sure there are some of you out there that your kids are out doing the same thing and maybe you just don’t know about it. Not everyone’s kids are as perfect as their parents would like to think they are.
That argument is so lame and what does it have to do with anything being discussed?
The tee-ping has been going on for years. The kids tee-pee the houses of the football players and the cheerleaders. Nothing wrong with a little harmless fun. Eggs on the other hand, not good.
Except for the neighbors that have to pick up the toilet paper. Do you mind if we put the eggs and trash we pick up in your yard? Let us know your address. Again, it will be harmless fun for us.
Also can you get the concept that people don’t like people running around their yards at night? Have some empathy and common sense and find another way to celebrate.
Good Grief. Another adult who doesn’t take responsibility and doesn’t teach it to his or her kids. Tee peeing is not only ugly, but there are likely some elderly or disabled neighbors who are unable to clean up the resultant debris from their own yards and have to find or hire someone to do it. Kids, find some other more helpful avenue to show your exuberance. Have poster contests. Make decorated birdhouses and fall wreaths to give to nursing homes. Channel your energy into something useful that will make you feel good instead of guilty the next day.
Katie, do you live in some kind of bubble???
It is still trespassing and criminal damage to property. If your child violates the law, both you and your child should be held liable for criminal as well as civil damages. After all, the rights of a property owner trump poor parenting.
That is of course unless you don’t believe in the property rights of an individual as guaranteed by our Constitution.
If enough hooligans were put in jail, perhaps the practice would end.
I would rather clean up tiolet paper than worry about eggs on my siding. Tee peeing has been around forever and if kids today are still carrying on the celebration we should let them! I remember being a kid tee peeing cops would stop us see if we had eggs or what was popular than paint ball guns, to which not one of us had and let us go. You people sound so old and think a poster contest is a good alternative to what use to be known as “painting the town”. What if the Mohawks had a winning record would your view be different? For some this is the last dance and for others a new experience! If your house gets tee peed you clean it up or make your kid do it! Hard work isn’t abuse people and if your kid is one who celebrated, hey the last thing to every party is the clean up! If tiolet paper goes into the older woman’s house next door go get it. It’s that simple! And chances are you prolly never heard them running through your yard because your just that….OLD!
Ageism is so clever. You seem to be quite the intellectual. Wonder if you are the parent of the kid with the vagina shirt….
My 12 year old daughter and a friend were followed and harassed by a group of high school aged boys in a red extended cab pickup with some sort of white graphics down the sides. Another red car was also involved. Details of that one are sketchy, except for paint on the windows. I’m told that last night was not the first time that this has happened with the same truck. With all the reports of vehicles attempting to pick up children, this group of boys put themselves into a high risk category. These boys need to stop their ‘pranks’ before they end up getting themselves into a situation they can’t deal with.
David, was this in the area of Kum & Go Central or along Iowa highway 122 corridor? Were some of the boys riding in the bed of the pick up?
David,
I’m sorry this happened to your twelve year old daughter. However, upon reading this… being the parent of a child not much older… My question is what was your 12 year old doing out on Homecoming Friday night without a parent anyway? My daughter who is three years older than yours was being driven to the game and picked up directly after the game. With the increase in activity on a night like this, I wanted to make sure they were safe.
The two girls were walking from the high school to a house directly across the street from John Adams on Illinois Avenue. They were not just out running around the town unsupervised.
All it takes is for some kid to get shot while messing with someones property and then the parents will all be up in arms. Instead of send them home they should have been arrested and when the parents come to get them the parent should be fined and made to pay for any damage the little brats did.
Where are the parents? Are they all useless? Does the school tell them this behavior is unacceptable and set punishments if they are caught? Not suspensions, but more classes after school or more assignments!
Their parents just want to be popular. They want their own kids and their kid’s friends to think they are fun people.
Who cleans this up? The people that get teepeed don’t always clean it up and then their neighbors get to do it.
I know some parents that actually help their kids with pranks. Nice example for everyone. Who likes kids prowling around their neighborhoods? I think this stuff is getting old. How about find something else to do to celebrate? Everyone has had a tough year and we don’t need your kids running around in the dark with their backpacks and dark clothing.
I didn’t get eggged this year for once but there were kids on my yard. I heard them whispering and chased them off.
Some in my neigborhood too but I didn’t see anything too bad.