Curious if you ever "solved" this problem

[nutz4sand]

I live on a dirt road and not to far from a corner. We have some "locals" who think this road is the local race track and that they need to powerslide around the corner at speeds that are not safe on the straights. To make matters worse one of them even swerved at a family member of mine who was going out to get the paper. The cops were NO help and if anything have made it worse as they "talked" to them but they take between 20 minutes to 45 minutes to show up and these "locals" know it. Now they are stopping in front of my house at all hours of the day and night and tearing the roads up and revving the motors to make the pipes roar. These locals now have a good few of thier friends doing this as well as flipping the bird and yelling threats. I am seeing about getting some cameras to try to capture this but that will not be easy. My personal opinion is about to be sitting in the bushes with surprise for them. All these "locals" have records and are known for being instigators. They are drunk as much of the time as they are not. But there are not enough law officers to be here ever it seems and I do not fancey it happening anytime soon.

Just wondering if anyones seen any good ideas to thwart such things. I am really interested in sane ideas but radical steps would be fun to hear about as well. Thanx Bill

[rowycoracing]

I got stuck as a juror once on an assault charge. A similar deal to what you describe was the cause of it. The homeowner had tried and tried to get the police to help with no satisfactory result. So he dug a pothole in the gravel road to slow the fast cars down. One of the offenders hit the pot hole a few days later. The driver came back later that day with several buddies and filled in the hole. Since there were a bunch of them the homeowner just stayed inside. He then just dug it out again that night. The offender hit the hole again the next day and got mad. The homeowner was outside working in the yard at the time so the driver stopped to "explain" how he didn't appreciate the homeowner digging the hole. A pushing and shoving match developed with the homeowners wife and the offenders girl friend ultimately joining in. The homeowners wife video taped most of the event. The driver ultimately got arrested for assault. We found him guilty. Good thing no one had a gun because I had the distinct impression that the driver definitely would have used it if he had one with him. I always wondered what happend after the trial was over ... that driver was a real hot head and I don't think that he was going to let it lie and he wasn't happy when we delivered our verdict.

[nutz4sand]

I thought about digging a trench to slow down the speeding idiots but then that would just multiply the revving to the moon burnouts and loud pipes after they went through it. Bill

[anasasisxenophontis]

Back in medieval times, warring nations developed what is called a caltrop. It was a crude device made of nails or bent shards of metal to stab into the hooves of footsoldiers, horses and elephants of the enemy in order to slow their advance. If those locals are tearing up the roads on what is legally your property, nobody can stop you from dropping a few caltrops and 'slowing their advance,' so to speak. I would be wary of using them if it isn't on your land, but more power to you if it is. That's just my suggestion if you're in a situation where the police do not help and you have no other options...

[nutz4sand]

Its a public road. Thus the issue. If it was on my land the issue would have been dealt with already. I do know what a caltrop is but I drive on the same road so tossing them might be bad... lol.

[anasasisxenophontis]

There was a family that lived on the same road as me when I was growing up that did the same sort of thing. They would tear down the road as fast as possible without actually running off the road. The whole neighborhood would ask them to slow down for the children's sake, so as not to hit someone, but they never listened. Over the years they finally discovered that everyone in our little community was disgusted with them. They slowed down a little bit after several wrecks and about a dozen vehicles later, but they never really learned. Reality is...they won't ever change. Moving away is what solved the problem for me.

[Gene]

Video from a discreet distance but with the ability to get license plates. Date and time stamp the videos. Get days and days of video then go see the county DA and file a complaint.

[tooltime]

Stinger missile. Duh, forgot we are in America, guess we can't do that. Talk to county comissioner about speed limit sign. Yideo when they tear it down.

[yoshi]

You checked on putting up speed bumps outta concrete with some signs warning of the, they are all over the neighborhoods around here, they work great for slowing people down......

[WelderPat]

Get a chainsaw and a hockey mask then..........
Naw never mind
Probably not a good idea to escalate this whole thing.
Better off just ignoring the idiots.