Trick or Treat

[Oldgringo]

Anybody seen this http://7online.com/news/mom-opens-door- ... on/376453/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; Halloween Horror story?

[C-dub]

I had not seen or heard about this, but am not surprised on a night where people are all over the place in masks.

If my wife doesn't come with us, this is why I don't want my wife handing out candy, while I'm taking our daughter trick or treating. I'm usually walking with my daughter and a couple of her friends and the wife stays home with the lights out. She said no one has knocked on the door and although she isn't going to answer it anyway, she does have the .45 with her in case the locked door isn't enough of a deterrent.

[Keith B]

A friend of mine posted on Facebook that as the evening went on the Trick-or-Treaters seemed to get older. She figured by 9PM she should be giving out Gillette disposable razors.

This is just a good example of situation awareness that opening the door, even when you think it is just more kids, is something to check before opening, especially later at night.

[Oldgringo]

A friend of mine posted on Facebook that as the evening went on the Trick-or-Treaters seemed to get older. She figured by 9PM she should be giving out Gillette disposable razors.

This is just a good example of situation awareness that opening the door, even when you think it is just more kids, is something to check before opening, especially later at night.

...and especially when the door knocker is masked.

[lonewolf]

I've noticed before that the trick or treaters were older as the evening wore on. Garage doors go down and lights out at that point.

[Excaliber]

The concerns expressed here are well founded, as a Long Island couple found out.

Details here.

[gigag04]

We shut the candy down at 8 but the neighbors had margaritas for the whole street so we just ridiculed the high school kids from their yard as they were going around trying to trick or treat at our empty houses.

[Lisa]

Anybody seen this http://7online.com/news/mom-opens-door- ... on/376453/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; Halloween Horror story?

Is it coincidence this happened in an area that's pretty much a big Gun Free Zone?

[carlson1]

I am sure someone will take offence, but that will be fine. I always thought trick or treat was for children. I guess some people never grow up.

[C-dub]

I am sure someone will take offence, but that will be fine. I always thought trick or treat was for children. I guess some people never grow up.

The wife was just saying last night how she's so upset that teenagers and adults have taken over Halloween. When I asked how so, we began reflecting on how we remember our parents having or going to Halloween parties when we were younger. We even remember being youngsters seeing all the older teenagers, who are now in their 50's and 60's, coming out as we were headed in for the night. The more she started to think about it the more she realized it's been going on for a long time and isn't something new or recent.

[MotherBear]

We moved a couple of years ago and have noticed a big difference in Halloween between the two neighborhoods. At our old house, we'd get a few polite, adorable young trick-or-treaters with their parents, and maybe a couple of also polite teenagers who really did put effort into costumes. Then we started doing a block party, where we'd set up a bouncy house in the driveway and invite the neighbors for fajitas. There'd be a bowl of candy, and a cooler of beer and one of water and juice. People would come hang out with their lawn chairs, eat, the kids would bounce, good conversation, never had any trouble with the beer, and we'd have a reasonable trickle of non-immediate neighbors stopping by for candy and and a few minutes in the bounce house before moving on. At our new house, we're a little afraid to try the block party thing because our first Halloween here we sat out in the driveway with the candy (trying to meet people and make friends) and encountered hordes of rude, grabby trick-or-treaters. I think the best was an adult, no costume, who tried to grab a huge handful of candy. Based on the traffic we'd had so far (more than we'd expected) we'd been asking the kids to take just one piece, so we asked her the same. She gave us a LOOK and said, "really?!" then dropped a few pieces and walked off with the rest and a whole lotta attitude. But generally even the kids would just swarm the candy bowl, grab as much candy as they could, and walk off without a thank-you or even stopping long enough to let us get a look at their costumes. The adults with them seemed to consider this acceptable behavior and get impatient if we tried to engage in conversation. Kind of ruined it for me.

We haven't been home for trick-or-treaters since then, but generally our approach has been to be already out and ready for them. No opening and closing the door all evening, no way for someone to push inside and do bad stuff where no one will see them, and when the candy is gone and we've gone inside there's no reason to open the door.

[KD5NRH]

So dress up as a SWAT team to hand out candy

[MechAg94]

When I was kid, we trick or treated mainly up and down the street we lived on. I don't remember going anywhere else. It was 15 or 20 houses at most. We moved to a rural area later and we didn't really do anything.

These days most of the kids I see are not even from my neighborhood. They are from across town or out of town and just trolling for more candy in neighborhoods they think are rich. If it was just neighborhood kids or very small kids, I would love to hand out candy. But that is not who comes around so I don't. I will have to talk to my neighbor about the best way to just help the locals. Maybe just walk around myself early in the evening then go home as more people show up.

[mr1337]

Typical home invasion story.

"This is a nice neighborhood. Nothing like this ever happens here."

Police arrive after the thieves are long gone.

It's a shame that NY is largely anti-gun. If this family had a few, they might not have had to suffer such a traumatic experience.

[VMI77]

We moved a couple of years ago and have noticed a big difference in Halloween between the two neighborhoods. At our old house, we'd get a few polite, adorable young trick-or-treaters with their parents, and maybe a couple of also polite teenagers who really did put effort into costumes. Then we started doing a block party, where we'd set up a bouncy house in the driveway and invite the neighbors for fajitas. There'd be a bowl of candy, and a cooler of beer and one of water and juice. People would come hang out with their lawn chairs, eat, the kids would bounce, good conversation, never had any trouble with the beer, and we'd have a reasonable trickle of non-immediate neighbors stopping by for candy and and a few minutes in the bounce house before moving on. At our new house, we're a little afraid to try the block party thing because our first Halloween here we sat out in the driveway with the candy (trying to meet people and make friends) and encountered hordes of rude, grabby trick-or-treaters. I think the best was an adult, no costume, who tried to grab a huge handful of candy. Based on the traffic we'd had so far (more than we'd expected) we'd been asking the kids to take just one piece, so we asked her the same. She gave us a LOOK and said, "really?!" then dropped a few pieces and walked off with the rest and a whole lotta attitude. But generally even the kids would just swarm the candy bowl, grab as much candy as they could, and walk off without a thank-you or even stopping long enough to let us get a look at their costumes. The adults with them seemed to consider this acceptable behavior and get impatient if we tried to engage in conversation. Kind of ruined it for me.

We haven't been home for trick-or-treaters since then, but generally our approach has been to be already out and ready for them. No opening and closing the door all evening, no way for someone to push inside and do bad stuff where no one will see them, and when the candy is gone and we've gone inside there's no reason to open the door.

Maybe because you live in the Texas liberal mecca? We live far out in the country now and don't get trick or treaters. But when we were in town, in a nice neighborhood, 90% of the trick or treaters were lower income children shipped in from poorer neighborhoods. All were very polite and well behaved. But then, maybe that was because of my 170 lb Great Dane, who loved Halloween and rushed to the door every time the bell rang. No one seemed to fear him though.....he was so sweet...but they did marvel at his size.