This morning a squirrel knocked a home made cross bow into our garden 😯 .

Actually, it doesn’t look like it could do much harm, but it has a sight on it and appears to be in a den in a corner of the neighbours garden pointing directly at our preschool kids playhouse and trampoline.

On further investigation I found a small satchel containg a pen knife and stanley craft knife.

This neighbours kid seems to have a bit of form, I heard him get a bollocking for starting a fire in the garden….

So what to do??

I could just take it all and bin it, have a quiet word with the parents or just go nuclear and call the cops?

What would the stw massive do

Really? Did you never make a bow and arrow, Catapult, have a pen knife as a kid?

Bin it.

Kids playing with bows, arrows and knives – whatever next 🙄

How old is the kid? I don’t think the cops would do anything unless there was a threat. Personally I have had pen knives and bushcraft knives since the age of 6 now I’m 22 but I got rid of them when the law changed about carrying them in public spaces. I would give it back to parents and politely ask if they know.

Really? Did you never make a bow and arrow, Catapult, have a pen knife as a kid?

Yes, sure, not as sophisicated as this one though! Also never commited arson at my own property.

But yeah, I’d love to think it was all innocent at he wasn’t aiming the nails I also found at my kids!

No idea about the age of the kid, have never seen them, they are a rear facing neighbour so to speak.

I thought all small boys had bows, slings, catapults, and penknives?.Or at least they used to .We had a blowpipe as well you could either fire hardened bread balls from it or darts made from nails and masking tape ,the pipe was a brass coloured curtain rail.

put it back, but slip in a note saying ‘I’m watching you’ 😈

You never made home made fireworks?

We also tried to make a bazooka with some pipe and lighter fluid to fire oranges

i almost burnt down the family home aged 10.

put it back, but slip in a note saying ‘I’m watching you’

That, I like!

The number of bows, cross bows, slingshots, spears etc i made when younger was truly epic! Never shot anyone or anything. Had many knives even at 10 and again only cut myself.

Hopefully I’m not an exception to the rule and your neighbours kid will be fine.

“Also never commited arson at my own property”

ah the house caught fire did it …..

I owned a Black Widow catapult, a automatic centre-punch, Rambo survival knives, other knives, throwing stars (sharpened), air rifle etc.

Didn’t make me a bad lad. I do have a fair few stitched scars on my gand though!

Don’t forget you can have an impressive arsenal in every kitchen for a child or adult with mental health issues.

Also never commited arson at my own property.

Could have just been a camp style fire not anything malicious.

What’s your point trail_rat?

From the sound of the shouting he caused a fire which could easily have got out of control..

I don’t think arson has to be specifically a building does it?

ill let frosty explain ….. Oh.

What would Charles Saatchi do…..

Same as JRTG ,my brother and I had loads of weapons and knives as kids.
The intended targets were never human,and often made of tin or glass.

OP
Don’t rush to make a mountain out of a hill that moles live in,unless they are torturing small creatures,in which case step in now before they become serial killers 🙂

I owned a Black Widow catapult, a automatic centre-punch, Rambo survival knives, other knives, throwing stars (sharpened), air rifle etc.

+1. It’s a good job I never got stopped by the police, we used to ‘borrow’ tools out of my grandads shed for doing some trail maintenance…they included axes and billhooks!

What would Charles Saatchi do…..

A Handjob

the malicious burning or exploding of the dwelling house of another, or the burning of a building within the curtilage, the immediate surrounding space, of the dwelling of another.

key word being malicious.

do you think the young lad next door was born so evil he set out with the intent to burn down his parents house.

or is it possible he was curious about fire but has not been educated in fire safety ? – we all had to learn about it some how.

+1. It’s a good job I never got stopped by the police, we used to ‘borrow’ tools out of my grandads shed for doing some trail maintenance…they included axes and billhooks!

Slightly OT a mate(STWer skiprat) gave me a new huge axe and I left it in the boot of the car for 2months. Heaven knows what would have happened if the Rozzers pulled me over etc. 😆

I guess I have no idea of the kids evil factor trail_rat.

Instictivley I think just put it back and forget about it, on the other hand he might be a psycho in the making and will be taking pot shots at my kids next week.

so what would you do?

I owned a Black Widow catapult

Yup, me too. All manner of knives, an air pistol, a Gat gun, plus numerous home made items inspired by being in the Scouts and/or fieldcraft manuals.

Just part of growing up and being a boy.

The ball bearing/Black Widow combo was 😯

You could punch a perfectly circular hole through a plate glass window (or oil drum).

fell into my garden – id bin it.

hes hardly going to go to his parents and accuse you of stealing his weapons ?

As a kid I rarely left home without a Swiss army knife in my pocket. I also had black widow catapults, used to do a lot of shooting too.

I doubt his intentions would be any more malicious than mine, or 99.9% of the poulation’s were at the time. But now its just that the media have conditioned us to the fact that everyone under the age of 25 is in a gang that deals drugs and gang-rapes people for a laugh, while filming it on their mobile phones. And they’re all potential serial killers who are presently plotting to murder you in your sleep, then torch your house.

Tell him his cross bow is crap and show him how to make a better one?

Still have fond memories of my Dad showing me how to make a decent one when I was 8 or 9.

Been playing with home made bows and arrows ever since.

Last time I was in Syria (before the war) a customer kindly took me up the road for lunch in his Mercedes… glanging down I noticed a handgun stuffed between the seat and the centre console. When I casually mentioned it he replied that some people were trying to kill him…..

Does this kid have a littel black curly haired dog and wear a black and red jumper ?

Black Widow – Check
Throwing Stars – Check
Couple of nice camping / hunting knives – Check
Webley Air Pistol – Check
Air Rifle with nice big scope on it – Check
Penknife – Check

Never killed any one with any of them.

Cheers

Danny B

I’d arm your self… potato cannon!

I know that for me, arson, manufacture of explosives/improvised weapon systems and covert woodland shelters were all part of a perfectly normal and healthy childhood.

I’m still quite impressed by the range achievable from the very simple Dutch Arrow. The Mrs still enjoys a good Ducth oven in the cold winter months.

Dutch Arrow

Put dog shit on the handle so when he picks it up he gets his fingers in it.

I’d arm your self… potato cannon!

Ah! We used to shoot those point-blank and then stick the nuzzle into the person after!

from junior school age onwards two sheath knives (one from each older brothers stash) then my own sheath knife . loads of small pen knives (came as gifts in those bubble machines) two proper pen knives, my own sheath knife, a throwing knife . an infinite supply of modelling knives. An army folding knife probably issued to my dad in he was in the home guard .

A home guard manual detailing tactics and improvised weapons ( I still know the recipe for a “proper Molotov cocktail”)

numerous home made bows and a really weak homemade crossbow and lots of shop bought catapults after realising knicker elastic just did not cut it .

My cousin and I even smuggled an air rifle on holiday to Scotland.

an untold number of “camp fires”

I grew up a pacifist and only ever cut one friend accidently with broken glass and one accidently with a saw.

I think you live near a “boy” and you should either return his bow with a note saying be careful with this or just bin it and stay stumm.

chilled76 – Member

Put dog shit on the handle so when he picks it up he gets his fingers in it.

Posted 14 minutes ago #Report-Post
With a bit of luck he will be blinded ………….. 😉

Decided to leave it as is, on reflection all stuff I did as a youngster, left the crossbow where it fell to see if its ‘claimed’.

If I come home and he has brutally murdered my children I will of course blame stw 😉

@hora – that’s a potato gun. A potato canon is quite a different beast.

Not really seen any over here but with I was in the States we used to start potato canon wars with rival factions.

Basically a length of drainpipe, a canister on the end with a screw base and a cooker lighter thingy sealed in to the end of the screw base.

1) Ram potato down drainpipe
2) Screw end of base off, spray in a squirt of WD40
3) Screw end of container back on
4) Press cooker lighter thingy
5) Watch as whole potato is launched some distance and at a velocity you would not want to get hit at

Along these lines

Ace fun…