16 year olds party on

[Aliantha]

Last night at about 6pm it became obvious that there was a teenage party on at a house just up the street from us. Dazza and I were on our way to drop off our boys at a blue light disco (a little kids dance party at the local pcyc) and there were kids comming down through the neighbourhood from all over the place. By the time we got back (about 30 minutes) there would have been about 100 people at the house. 2 hours later when we went out to pick the kids up from their disco, there were probably 200 people at the house and more comming, all with their mobile phones in their hands.

We sat on the front verandah for a while and watched what was going on and the kids kept comming. They were pretty much all drinking and there was a lot of unruly behaviour.

At this point I decided to ring the police and let them know that there was a party going on that looked to be growing exponentially. I apparently wasn't the first to report this particular party. The cops did a drive by and then came back shortly with 5 cars and a paddy wagon. There were arrests and kids running in all directions. After about an hour things were pretty quiet. I rang the police and thanked them for the job they did. I was amazed at how stoked they were about a compliment.

This morning my boys and a couple of other kids from the street went out and collected all the empty bottles and cans from the street. They collected over 100. They also found 4 shirts and a backpack which was empty. We've hung the shirts on the fence in case anyone comes looking for them, but I don't expect they will although they're nice shirts.

This can happen anywhere. Even in your street. It's a big problem in western society these days.