Can Anybody Explain This?

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Clarissa

July 30, 2014

If you aren’t an immigrant, you don’t know how complicated an immigrant’s reality is. I’ve spent 16 years on this continent and I still don’t understand what’s going on every so often. For instance, this morning I discovered this on my lawn:

Does anybody know what this means? Why would people hang toilet paper on my trees and mailbox? I drove around the neighborhood, and it’s just my house. Nobody else has had it happen.

Somebody rang out door bell at 1:30 in the morning. That freaked me out but I didn’t open the door because I never open unless I specifically invited visitors. So I’m guessing that the people who rang the door bell placed toilet paper on the trees. Which is a seriously bizarre thing to do.

Does anybody have an explanation?

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21 responses to “Can Anybody Explain This?”

xykademiqz

July 30, 2014

You had your house TP-ed. It’s a teenage hooligan prank (supported by the fact that they rang your bell in the middle of the night.) Not sure why you are the target, though. Hopefully not because you are an immigrant. Did you have a run-in with some local teens recently?

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1. Clarissa
  
  July 30, 2014
  
  No, of course not. I never had any run-ins with anybody. Weirdness.
  
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Stringer Bell

July 30, 2014

Yeah, it’s a prank. If you haven’t had any run-ins with kids in your neighborhood lately, it’s probably not malicious.

i thought this was the stuff of movies. Didn’t realize kids still did it.

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1. Clarissa
  
  July 30, 2014
  
  It’s great to see how unspoiled the teenagers around here are if this is the most rebellious thing they can think of doing with having some unsupervised night time.
  
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  1. Shakti
    
    July 30, 2014
    
    Wait until Devil’s Night (October 30th). You might find some eggs to add to the toilet papering.:)
    
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    1. Clarissa
      
      July 30, 2014
      
      Maybe I should start patrolling the neighborhood with N’s machete.
      
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Vic Crain

July 30, 2014

Agreed, very standard teen or tween prank. If they were really upset about something, they would have egged your place.

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1. Clarissa
  
  July 30, 2014
  
  But why just my house, though? We are not on a corner, or anything.
  
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  1. Fie Upon This Quiet Life
    
    July 30, 2014
    
    Likely because you are new to the neighborhood is why they did it. It doesn’t have anything to do with you. It’s just like hazing at a fraternity. If you’re new, you get hazed. Vandalizing is a pretty common teenage prank. If you don’t already, park your cars in the garage. My parents and sister had their cars broken into a lot when they didn’t park in the garage. When we moved back to the midwest, we stayed with my mom for a few weeks. We had our cars egged. My guess is that the California license plates inspired their ire.
    
    That’s a really shitty thing for them to do, though. If someone rings your doorbell that late at night again, you might consider calling the police to see if they can catch up to the vandals.
    
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Walsh

July 30, 2014

When my kids were in high school sports, t p’ing was common. Both of them were t p’d. Both seemingly were embarrassed — though I thought I detected some pride at having been “distinguished” by their peers. On the other hand I was less pleased when I discovered how much of a pain it was to get the t p out of pretty tall trees. I learned that a hard spray from a garden hose was not an instant panacea. I suspect you aren’t on a H S sports team. Maybe your summer school students are paying you tribute for inspiring classes. Could it be connected to the red truck? You might be in the midst of one of those mysteries peculiar to suburbia. A neighbor might provide a clue.

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Stringer Bell

July 30, 2014

“If someone rings your doorbell that late at night again, you might consider calling the police to see if they can catch up to the vandals.”

Yeah. A couple of months ago we were woken up by a knock on the door at 6am. I opened the door to this guy who demanded to know our landlord’s phone number because he wanted to buy the whole property. I was still groggy-eyed so I couldn’t muster any anger towards him, but I politely told him that I couldn’t help him, and he should consider calling at more decent hours to strangers’ houses.

A few weeks later we learned that a couple of farmhouses very close to where we live were burgled. I’m think our apartment was being cased. It’s a very safe neighborhood, so it came as a shock to us, but still.

Not that it has any bearing on your situation, but I’m still angry at myself for not giving him a piece of my mind. Anyone knocking on doors and ringing doorbells at strange hours without an emergency deserves life in prison.

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Good Enough Professor

July 30, 2014

Low-stakes small-town crime/vandalism can be sort of quirky. That looks like a pretty pro-forma TP-ing. A couple of good rains will take care of it. If they really had it in for you, there’d be a lot more TP in the tree. But yeah–make sure to put your cars away, particularly overnight. Our neighborhood had a rash of car break-ins. The thief seemed mostly to be looking for the spare change that people often stash in the ashtray to use for parking–the neighborhood listserv was abuzz with people reporting the loss of hoarded quarters. We also had an emergency $20 stashed in the car, in the same plastic envelope with our car registration/proof of insurance. The thief took the whole packet one night along with the change, and then thoughtfully broke back in a couple of nights later to return the documents.

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1. Clarissa
  
  July 31, 2014
  
  I have no idea how to fit both cars into this supposedly 2-car garage. So for now, one of the cars lives in the driveway.
  
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David P. Bellamy

July 30, 2014

I think I would put up a sign in the yard saying that the “welcome to the neighborhood art” is courtesy of an unknown artist.

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AcademicLurker

July 31, 2014

Wow. TP-ing was indeed a standard teenage prank back when I was growing up. I didn’t realize it was still a thing.

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1. Clarissa
  
  July 31, 2014
  
  Little idiots. Instead of getting drunk, high or sexually active, like normal teenagers would do outside of parental supervision, they throw toilet paper about.
  
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  1. Good Enough Professor
    
    July 31, 2014
    
    Now, now…these things are not necessarily incompatible! With the right kind of weed, TPing a house might be foreplay.
    
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    1. Clarissa
      
      July 31, 2014
      
      Yes, let’s hope for the best! 🙂
      
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Observer Jules

July 31, 2014

Obviously Clarissa has an ” issue “with the “tissue”…and now we know it…and more importantly, so do they!
Perhaps, you were singled out because you are simply “so Charmin”

Clarissa…if it really bothers you, just cancel the “Morning Paper” LOL
All is well !

Observer Jules

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1. Clarissa
  
  August 1, 2014
  
  It’s an enormous feat to make me laugh so early in the morning but you achieved it. Thank you! 🙂
  
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MissAnthropy

August 1, 2014

I also wonder if there is a regional aspect to this common teenage prank. All the commenters have referred to it as “TP’ing”. When I was growing up, we always called it “rolling”, as in “Beth’s house got rolled last night”. It was seldom truly malicious, and more often was a sort of rite of initiation into a high school club or team.

The one time my house got rolled, they used pink toilet paper. Somehow, this made it worse. Speaking of that, when is the last time anyone saw colored toilet paper? I remember they used to sell it in various pastel colors back in the 80s.

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