Fireworks, meth heads, a shotgun, the cops... welcome to New Mexico

[JodyH]

A little info, I live on a dead end street with pasture on two sides. I have more surveillance cameras than most drug dealers because the pasture seems to be a magnet for shitheads.
I've been here 15 years or so and there's been two bodies dumped back there in that time.

I was in my computer room Sunday evening as usual when I saw a vehicle drive up on the side of my house, I figured they had just pulled up to watch the fireworks that were going off about 1/2 mile away on the other side of the pasture so I just kept an eye on them but wasn't that concerned.

Then I started seeing some strange lighter activity going on inside the vehicle (dark colored older Tahoe). The lighter would come on for a few seconds then off for a few then back on, repeat.
Fucking meth heads were smoking on the dead end next to my back fence.
Called the cops and got the "we'll send someone right over".
5 minutes later one of the meth monkeys gets out and tries to look over my 6' fence, but my loud dog persuades him to get his ass back in the truck.
They then drive off down my alley.

I wait a few minutes and decide to go investigate where they were parked.
Surefire in one pocket and P2000 in the other (hey I had on cargo shorts).
I take a quick peek around the corner and into the alley and damned if they weren't parked directly behind my neighbors house (who wasn't home at the time).

Oh hell nah!

Call the cops again and tell them I think they're about to break into the neighbors house.
I get the "we're bumping the priority they'll be right there".
I go back in the house, grab the Benelli M4 and then into the backyard where I can see into the neighbors back yard and keep an eye on the meth heads in the alley.
Don't want to turn on the lights and scare them off before the cops get here.

The passenger gets out again and walks to the neighbors back gate and gives it a quick shake (neighbor keeps it latched from the inside).

Ok, no sign of the cops and these guys are most definitely up to no good.

Not wanting to say anything Clint Eastwood esque but not wanting them in my yard or the neighbors I just give them the old standby...

"HEY!"

The passenger took off like a damn jackrabbit and they damn near ran over my trash cans on their way back out of the alley.
Cops showed up about 5 minutes later.

I do have some decent camera footage of their vehicle but they were too far out for the night vision on the cameras to see anything that would positively identify them.
Cops said they'd do some extra drive-bys for a few days, and amazingly enough they have been (motion activated camera caught footage of them twice last night).

Yea... with the oilfield slowdown this shit is just going to get worse. I hate the trash that gets left behind after every oilfield boom/bust.

[Luke]

Where were the fireworks?

[hufnagel]

3 S's time?

[Jeep]

As you know, there is a decent chance they will be back. It's something about crooks--when they fail to break into a house they seem to believe that it must have been the mother lode of expensive stuff and want to go back and try again.

I know someone who a few months back found a guy peering into the 2nd floor bedroom window at 3 am. Screams, etc., the guy jumps off the ladder and runs away. Two days later they pick him up on the security camera, circling the house during the middle of the day. Cops now patrol what had been a nice quiet street multiple times a week.

Good luck

[BJXDS]

I am glad nothing bad happened..... to you or your neighbor.

Just out of curiosity, how long did it take for the police to show up after your first call?

[fixer]

Not sure if it is related, but they caught some meth related jackasses at the Seminole Best Western this past weekend. They had a veritable crime spree in Hobbs, then tried to hide out in Seminole. Apparently they even stole a truck from Permian Ford dealership.

[Irelander]

I wish all my neighbors were as vigilant as Jody. Nice job. Glad things didn't go South.

[LHS]

Had a similar incident happen here a couple months ago. There's an alley for trash pickup that runs behind the house, and I frequently see signs of homeless, vagrants, etc back there when I'm taking out the trash. I tend to try to do so only during the day, and I don't unlock the back gate unless I'm armed.

Anyway, we had gotten a new puppy, and I had him out in the backyard trying to get him to realize he was supposed to piss there instead of on the kitchen tile. I finally got worn out with it and put him in his crate to chill out for a bit, and walked back outside to enjoy one of the last cool nights before summer hit. I heard a bicycle in the alley, and suddenly I see some methed-out chick's head pop over my back fence. She looked around, but didn't seem to see me, and I heard the gate jiggle a bit. My neighbor across the alley has a yard that reminds me of the worst parts of West Virginia, with junked cars, tall grass, and various debris scattered throughout. He also has a few planks missing from his gate, and I heard it open. I meandered over to my back wall, and stood up beside a bush, with just my head exposed. The methchick's bike was leaning against the far wall of the alley, and she was inside the neighbor's yard, looking around. Hell at this point, I'm not sure she doesn't live there, but she's way too furtive for my comfort. She looked back my way a couple times, but it's amazing what people will miss when you just stay still. Eventually she got back on her bike and left the alleyway, still none the wiser that I had been watching. Five minutes later I had a padlock on my back gate. My wife had objected to it when we moved in, because it made it a hassle to take out the trash, and we lived in a nice neighborhood. I used the methchick as a lesson in why a little bit of inconvenience was a good thing.

[JodyH]

I am glad nothing bad happened..... to you or your neighbor.

Just out of curiosity, how long did it take for the police to show up after your first call?

15 minutes, but this was the 5th of July and I'm sure they were plenty busy chasing down noise complaints for fireworks and gunshots all over town.

My motion activated wired cameras haven't caught the meth-mobile since then, but there are a few blindspots because of trees and such and they could come from the south for quite a ways and not activate a motion sensor if they then left that same way.
In the evening I've been putting out a game camera positioned to take a shot of their license plate in the area they seemed to favor smoking their meth in, and my neighbor has been doing the same by his back fence.
So far I've caught nothing on it but cats, rabbits and the occasional vehicle making a U-turn at the dead end.

Hopefully they moved on to a quieter location.