Kids’ playfulness can easily be tolerated, but when it involves stealing and vandalizing property, it’s a whole different story.

In this story, this woman welcomed some kids into her townhouse community, but they quickly became a problem.

What started as harmless visits turned into chalk messages, pranks, and moving her trash can.

Worse, her packages started going missing and were later found opened and buried.

Ugh! What a horrible experience. How would you deal with this? Check out the full details below.

What to do with neighborhood kids that have now stolen a package

I live in a townhouse community in the cul-de-sac.

This new-ish family moved in across the way.

They have two daughters and a cousin who lives with them.

They play, ride scooters, and use chalk.

This woman thought the kids’ frequent visits were harmless.

For the past couple of weeks, they have been obsessed with my porch.

It all started when they rang my doorbell. They asked for snacks and wanted to sing me a song.

I watched their little show and gave them fruit snacks.

It seemed harmless, or so I thought.

Now, they are leaving a lot of mess on her driveway.

Since then, they have left chalk messages.

They have moved my trash can from the driveway to my door.

They have ding-dong ditched me.

Now, there is a new development of stealing packages.

She confronted the kids’ mother about missing packages.

I confronted the mother. The kids conveniently found my package after they opened it.

They took out the vitamins and buried them in their yard.

The mom said she will replace it.

No apologies. No lecturing from mom. Nothing.

She’s wondering if this is a normal kid behavior in the neighborhood.

I do not know if it is worth doing anything or just leaving it.

But I feel duped and used and incredibly stupid.

Is this normal?

If I was a kid and did this, my mom would have beat my bottom and made me apologize.

Clearly, this goes beyond kids being playful or curious.

Leaving chalk messages and moving a trash can might be annoying, but opening someone else’s package and taking items from it crosses a serious line.

OP was justified in confronting the mother, and it is understandable to feel frustrated when there seemed to be little accountability afterward.

If you enjoyed this post, check out this story about a neighbor who had to take a direct approach to get the neighborhood parents to actually watch their kids.

Let’s see how others reacted to this story.

This person offers a helpful suggestion.

Call the police, advises this one.

Here’s a similar thought.

This one makes another valid point.

Finally, people are saying the same thing.

Respect for other people’s property starts at home.