I live two homes away from my daughter in Slidell, La, which is in the city limits of Slidell, yet still in the parish of St. Tammany. My 14 year old grandson has been playing the Call of Duty incessantly for years now. In the last three years, he started talking back, he punched me so hard five times in my arm, deeply bruised to the bone, for taking the PlayStation away because he was watching Contraband w/Mark Wahlberg, definitely not for children under 17 years old to be watching (I was 52 yrs old at the time), telling me no one wants me there, nobody likes me, picking/beating up on his little brother, who’s four years younger than him, leaving the house at will, smoking pot, has been drug-tested at home, at random and has been punished by taking away his XBox 360, grounding him to not go outside (which he left the house anyway), having him do extra chores, which he performs half-hardheartedly has not changed his behavior. About six months ago a judge had placed him in the Florida Parish Correctional Facility for juveniles for 15 days. His behavior changed, but only temporarily. He hasn’t been playing his game (for whatever reason, he’s been punished from it), maybe he’s been bored, starts leaving the house again, saying he’s going where he wants to go. Well, somehow (I don’t know how he got it), he gets ahold of a BB gun and starts shooting it at a Nike shoe box last Friday. Guess he got tired of the shoe box and had to shoot the back windshield of my 1998 Volvo S70 out, it’s tempered glass, but the entire back glass is shattered and can fall in at any time. I called Slidell police. I was asked, did I see him do it? No, but moments after I had noticed, he was walking around the corner and up the block, as I live in the corner house, two homes away from his mom’s home. I asked him to come see and asked him if he knew what happened, he told me no. Then my oldest granddaughter, 11 years old, tells me, Anthony, the 14 year old was shooting the Nike shoe box, that’s how I found out about the shoe box. My daughter was at her 40 hour a week job at the time. The police officer took the report, saying it would be ‘investigated’. Well, the very next day I hear the popping sound because I was outside. I walked over and knocked on the door, my 14 year grandson answered the door. I asked him did he shoot out my back window and he admitted he had done it, but he didn’t know he did it until he saw it when I called him. Of course, he’s lying, the cabin pressure inside the Volvo caused an explosive sound, broke of the glass in a spiked fan shape where the BB had made impact. The rest of the back glass has bowed out because of the cabin pressure. Then I asked him what was the popping sound I heard, he said he was shooting at a cat!! I told him that was wrong and he shouldn’t be doing that to any animal. Of course, his mom wasn’t home again. So I called her and she said, ‘I don’t want to hear that sh**. SO I called the Slidell police again, they came out and didn’t write a report as to his admission of guilt for shooting out the back windshield, (which costs nearly $600 to replace, installed) or that he was shooting a cat. They did absolutely nothing, except to say, talk to my daughter and have her pay for the back windshield and the cat issue is a animal issue to be taken up with Animal Control. My daughter’s taking a stand against me (it’s a given that she wouldn’t do that if it was her neighbor’s car back windshield), attempting to raise her hand to me (I told her don’t you dare raise your hand to me), when I told her it is her responsibility to pay for the back windshield (with rear defroster, very expensive, needless to say) that her son had shot out. My question to you is, would her home owner’s insurance pay for the back windshield since he shot it out from their backyard? Please let me know it is that I can do, since the law enforcement here seems to just throw up their hands and blow it off. I’m concerned for my grandson’s future and his behavior needs to change. Without the proper punishment for his recent behavior with a BB gun, I’m afraid he’s going to get into a lot more trouble down the line. Please tell me what I can do to have my daughter replace the back windshield in my car and possibly help my grandson learn a valuable lesson from his malicious actions toward his grandmother and animals. What are my rights and what the home owner’s insurance will do, if anything?
Respectfully,
Malinda Jennings