Today we discovered that someone had vandalized our property. We have a small clearing down by the creek. Someone has cut down our tire swing (yes, definitely cut) and we found the tire in a little fort, across the property line, built out of the boards with which I built Z a fort on our property. Z’s fort is completely gone.

The fort has various things spray painted on it, including PENIUS in red spray paint, and “MW3 Rangers” which assures me that it was a boy that did it.

Additionally, they had pulled down several of the hand-carved handholds that I had affixed to two of the trees down there, and broken them into small pieces. The steps and handholds that were undamaged were nailed to trees across the property line with the remains of the nails.

I spent the entire morning in a rage.

It occurred to me a while ago that only an imbecile would steal something and then leave it in plain sight across the property line. This leads me to believe that it was NOT the neighbor’s boy, but was one of the other kids from across the creek that come across to play occasionally.

But, still, WHY would someone do this? Why would someone destroy things that I have worked to create. I’m angry. Z is angry too, as he has every right to be. It’s not that what was destroyed was expensive, or even that it took a very long time to do, but that I feel violated to have my things destroyed in my own back yard.

I went next door and spoke with my neighbor, asking if his son might shed some light on what happened, but it seems unlikely that he would be so dumb as to steal my stuff and then leave there where I could find it. He didn’t seem terribly concerned, which strikes me as rather odd. I would have thought that he’d be concerned about vandalism happening on his property.

I’ve retrieved the tire. I have not retrieved the wood, much of which is ruined by being painted. I’m still very angry.

I wrote a note, put it in a ziploc freezer bag, and nailed it to the fort, asking the perpetrators to be men and come speak with me about it. I neglected to correct their spelling.