I was out smoking a cigar on my patio the other night, after midnight, just Samson the Great Dane and I. He alerts (ears up and head pointed in direction of interest, no bark) to some metallic/clicking noises going on across the street. I walk to the front gate and see what appears to be a teenage male kneeling down on the sidewalk in front of my neighbor's house and clicking something (almost sounded like a zippo lighter?). He does this for a minute, I walk outside of my gate and observe, I am now in my front yard. Hey, the kid is on sidewalk, cannot figure out what he is doing but he's on the sidewalk. He'll move on. Nope.
Kid stands up and goes over to the corner of my neighbors house, next to the bushes and the backyard fence. It's after midnight, I do not recognize the kid/teenager and he is now kneeled down and making the same clicking noise. I cannot ascertain WHAT he is doing but he has NO BUSINESS being there DOING IT. I now walk into the middle of the street and ask him what his business is. He mumbles something, I say "Say again?!?" Still incoherent mumbling, I ask him to state his business at my neighbor's house at that time of night/morning....he says something about "I'm not in there I'm out here" (maybe referencing that he is not inside their fence but in their yard). I tell him he has no business to be there and to get his backside out of their immediately. He backtalks for a second then proceeds to move on. I note his attire, direction of travel, etc. I call 911 and relay info/events to him. Within minutes there are two patrol cars scanning the neighborhood. I chat with one of the officers and he asks if it is _____ (neighborhood troublemakers, one of which has stumps for legs). I respond that it is not, saying that I do sort of pity the kid with stumps. Cop says "Don't feel sorry for them, they are criminals." Cop thanked me for calling and said "We need more people like you to take action, we do not know what is happening unless people like you tell us, etc...."
Cops did not find the teenager, most likely he lives a street or two over and ducked into his house. Cop and I looked where the kid was kneeling down, did not see any evidence of mischief, etc. I had thoughts of grabbing the kid by the collar and hauling him to the door and waking the neighbor and letting him have the chat (neighbor liked this idea when I discussed afterwards), but I thought it best/most prudent not to. I chatted with the neighbor after work and he thanked me for keeping an eye on things, we discussed guns, etc (he has a large library safe that is about maxed out!). He said he did not know the kid.
With each situation you have to gage what is most prudent for *you* to do. Some people may not feel like getting involved, but when it comes to friends, family, neighbors, I do.