How many times have we seen this situation on TV: kids are tossing around a ball when it lands over the fence, in the creepy old lady's yard next door. The kids huddle and strategize, trying to determine how best to get their ball back. In the end, the lonely old lady is revealed to have a heart of gold, and the kids learn the importance of respecting people's differences, as well as their property rights.
The 21st century version of that old chestnut, however, plays out a little differently. In today's version, 89-year-old Edna Jester, of Blue Ash, Ohio, keeps the kids' ball, because she's freakin' sick of the kids trespassing on her property. The parents call the police, who come and tell Jester that she can't keep the ball. When Jester refuses, she's arrested and charged with petty theft - a charge that carries a maximum sentence of six months in jail and a fine of $1000.
Apparently, possession is not nine-tenths of the law, after all.
From the news reports, it sounds as if this was not an isolated incident, but a frustrated response by Jester after the kids' ball repeatedly ended up in her yard. So, am I wrong in thinking that, instead of calling the cops, the parents should have done a better job teaching their kids to respect their elders, and to be more careful about not bothering their neighbor? What the kids have learned now is that they can be as inconsiderate as they want, and they'll still get their ball back.
Or maybe the kids were as careful as they could be - the reports aren't that detailed. I am definitely willing to admit that my allegiances have shifted as I've grown closer in age to the crotchety old women in the world than to the kids playing ball!
