I don’t think this sign would deter the little monsters…

Today on our local Facebook group, a lady made a query for solutions on how to deal with ding dong ditchers.  You know what they are, right?  They’re the little shits who ring your doorbell and then run away.

You never know what or who you might run into when you ding dong ditch…

When Bill and I lived here last time (07-09), we had trouble with neighborhood hooligans ding dong ditching us.  It was very annoying because we had two dogs who would go nuts when the doorbell rang.  They were even worse than Zane and Arran are now.  We lived in a neighborhood where locals were somewhat unfamiliar with Americans, so it was hard to keep a low profile.

I had never had problems with ding dong ditchers before I lived in Germany, but apparently it’s a prank played by teens the world over.  It’s very annoying when you just have noisy dogs.  It’s even worse when you have a baby who’s trying to nap, as the lady in the Facebook group does.  And if you don’t speak the local language well enough to yell at the little turds when you do catch them, it can be even more exasperating.

In all seriousness, though I knew rationally that the kids were just trying to be “funny”, their antics actually felt a lot like harassment to me.  I got pretty pissed off.  Fortunately, the house we were in allowed for disconnecting the doorbell.  There were three separate ones in the house that we had to disconnect, but ultimately, that did the trick.  They finally quit bugging us.  Then, when it came time for us to move, we reconnected the wiring.

No one in this neighborhood has so far ding dong ditched us.  I think it could be because we don’t live near a school and Americans have lived in this neighborhood before we did.

Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be much you can do to stop this kind of thing.  Americans who have taken action against ding dong ditchers have ended up being arrested and/or sued.  I can see how ding dong ditchers think it’s harmless fun, especially if they do it in the daytime, but you never know who might be behind that door.  A lot of people pack heat just for the occasion of meeting and greeting intruders.  If you’re in the United States, you might even find yourself staring at the barrel of someone’s weapon.  In any case, you could end up being chased, yelled at, and perhaps having the shit beaten out of you.

This could be what the person whose peace you are disturbing ends up doing…

You may have guessed that I don’t think being ding dong ditched is very funny.  However, I must admit that it’s kind of fun to watch YouTube videos of them.

This one is pretty funny.

I guess there must be something to the adrenaline rush one gets when being chased by an enraged homeowner.  Anyway, here’s a funny article about what to do if you become a ding dong ditch victim.  I don’t actually recommend trying any of the suggestions, but I will admit some of them are pretty funny.