Make young criminals face consequences

Make criminals face the music

I recently purchased a home in Brookridge. Or a recent Saturday evening, shortly after 11 p.m., I heard the sound of glass breaking in my home. After investigating, I discovered that someone had broken my master bathroom window. I immediately dialed 911 and the deputies arrived quickly, took a report and said they would try to locate the person who did this.

Within two hours, with the combined efforts of the Security Division at Brookridge and the Sheriff's Office, I received a call back from the officer who told me the person who broke my window was apprehended and admitted breaking the window. He asked if I wanted to press charges. Of course, I told the officer, absolutely.

After obtaining a copy of the report, I learned that this was a group of youths who lived outside of the Brookridge community who were attending a birthday party and got bored. So they decided to climb the fence into Brookridge and see what destruction they could cause and, unfortunately, I was the victim that night.

Apparently, these youths, some of whom reside in Brookridge and some of whom live outside, often get bored and their idea of having fun and breaking their boredom is to cause property damage and also terrorize neighbors in this community and perhaps other neighborhoods in the Brooksville/Spring Hill area.

The Brookridge security officer explained the one thing I could do was to follow through with pressing the necessary charges and seeing to it that these youths are brought into the judicial system, with their parents in tow, and be forced to pay for the damages that they did out of boredom. The officer also informed me that this is one thing that victims do not do. They do not prosecute; therefore, these bored youths know that they can come into our community, be destructive and cause havoc, and there are never any consequences to be paid.

I said I was indeed pressing charges. Friends and neighbors, this is what we all must do. I wonder what they would have done had there not been a birthday party going on: mug someone, steal someone's purse, beat someone up?

We all expect our community security officers to do their jobs, and we wouldn't hesitate to tell them that. When we dial 911, we all expect the deputies to arrive and do their jobs. But what do we, as citizens, do to make their jobs a little bit easier, and also a little bit more rewarding for them?

I will be in court to meet the bored youth, and also his parents, and I hope they are prepared to pay a bill of about $100 because their child was bored. Hitting the parents in their pocketbook could very well be part of the answer to this type of behavior.

Josephine Lewis, Brooksville

Thank you, honest people

On Sept. 17 I lost my phone and identification cards. I was in my Winn-Dixie shopping. My daughter (caregiver) looked in our car, at home and in the garage. She began calling my phone, and after many tries a man answered. We met him in the parking lot of the Knights of Columbus. He had my phone and gladly returned it to us. We wanted to reward him, but had to convince him that he did the right thing and should take some money.

He did not have my driver's license, Medicare or Blue Cross cards. Later, we got a call from Ashley at the Winn-Dixie service desk. She had called Blue Cross trying to get a telephone number for me because she had all three of my cards. She did not know who found them or brought them into the store. We wanted to reward her, too, but learned Winn-Dixie has a no-reward policy for all employees.

We understand and I will continue shopping there, at Mariner Boulevard and Spring Hill Drive, as I have since 1994. Bless all the people who were so good and did the right thing.

Ruthe Ross-Petillo, Spring Hill

Careless owners cause suffering

When I was a young girl, every time I saw the dogcatcher, I wanted to be a hero and release all the stray dogs. I sometimes would cry knowing their fate, and some of the other kids would throw rocks at the vehicles. I thought they hated animals and enjoyed their job of putting animals down.

That was until I actually talked to some of them myself, just recently, as an adult. Workers at Animal Services here in Hernando County love animals. They often cry as they watch mandatory videos, and some had to walk out.

I have a dog I adopted from the SPCA four years ago, and now am fostering kittens. I recently went to Animal Services to find out for myself how they put down the animals. I was reassured that all animals are tranquilized first, so they don't feel anything. Yes, it is a shame they have to go through this at all, but the real blame belongs to those who don't take the time or money to have them fixed. There is no excuse in this day and age why animals still have to pay the price for people not being responsible.

But we have another serious problem — feral dogs. There was an attack on a Georgia couple back in August. Apparently the wife went out for a walk, and when she didn't return, the husband went looking for her. He found her bloodied, mauled body and when he tried to help her, that's when the dogs attacked him. He tried to fend them off, but there were too many and they overtook and killed him. In this case, the dogs had started to multiply and grew into wild or feral-type dogs. Dogs that attack are typically not spayed or neutered, which can contribute to aggression. The ironic part in all of this is that the couple were dog lovers and owned seven of their own.

Please take responsibility when becoming a pet owner, and don't just do it half way. Follow through on getting your animals fixed, as you could be saving lives, both human and animal.

Barbara Nickoles, Spring Hill