But they gave her the ball

[Jerrymac]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081020/ap_on_re_us/odd_football_charge


89-year-old charged with keeping kids' ball

BLUE ASH, Ohio – Police in Ohio say an 89-year-old woman is facing a charge of petty theft because neighborhood children accuse her of refusing to give back their football.

Edna Jester was arrested last week in the Cincinnati suburb of Blue Ash.

Police say one child's father complained that Jester kept the youngsters' ball after it landed in her yard. Police Capt. James Schaffer says there has been an ongoing dispute in the neighborhood over kids' balls landing in the woman's yard.

Jester said Monday she has received many calls and didn't have time to discuss the matter any more.

Jester is to appear in court next month. The maximum penalty for a petty theft conviction in Ohio is six months in jail and a fine of up to $1,000

[Brian D. Bray]

1. It could be argued that the ball was abandoned when it was batted away.
2. She didn't steal anything, it was on her property. which means it was hers to keep.
3. She had a right to keep it because the ball was trespassing.

You might think those ideas of defense are ludicrius but I've seen cases won on less.

[JP]

There was this old lady on my Grandmother's street we called "the old hag" we probably, (no we definitely) terrorized her more than she did us. May have had something to do with the m-80's we set off in her mailbox and gutters, we were sweet little kids (devils) you know me (harmless)

Anyway, we were playing football in the street one day, one of our typical 5hr Sunday games and the ball gets kicked right up against her front door.

She opens the door and swoops up the ball and slams her door shut!

3 days later we found the ball in the street with knife cuts.

One day we covered the entire front of her house with clay bombs from a fresh load of dirt.

She called the police and I knew I was in trouble when I heard the sirens. I hid in my Grandma's back room but they came for me.

Winds up the "old hag" wasn't quite such a hag after all, my Grandma later told me she told the cops to put some scare into us, when I thought for surely we were gonna be put under the jailhouse.

Did have to clean the mud off her house though, made sure she got an extra m-80 in her gutter the following yr though for good measure, of course!


...JP

[Scadsobees]

Isn't it amazing how kids view things?  They know when people want to be left alone, and will not give up!  They can smell fear, and will pick pick pick away until they can't anymore...  I think I know why you targeted the "old hag"...because she couldn't fight back!

My own 5 little angels do this to each other all the time  .

The old lady should have had a better way of dealing with them, but at 90 years old that can't be easy to do anymore.  I hope I'm a happy old guy, but when you are tired and sore all the time and people don't come around anymore and you don't have much of a life outside of waking up, eating, sleeping and crunching through pills...

The adults here should have a little more understanding.

[reinbeau]

Crotchety old woman, she doesn't help her cause, but those parents are the ones who are wrong.  Having her arrested?  And I'll bet their little darlings didn't get reprimanded once for bothering the old lady.  I can't stand parents nowadays, they don't teach respect, they teach that it's all about them, they teach selfishness, they teach to jump to the legal system to get what they think is theirs - what a sad state society has come to.

[Jerrymac]

Rock salt use to take care of a lot of problems.

Today I guess it would get you a few years 

[Jerrymac]

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jwvuXbVJ0cGWbV0JUeDpCd3DWdfwD93VRRIG0

Charge dropped against woman in football dispute


BLUE ASH, Ohio (AP) — A prosecutor has dropped a charge of petty theft against an 89-year-old suburban Cincinnati woman accused of refusing to return a neighbor kid's football that landed in her yard.

Blue Ash Prosecutor Mark Arnzen said Wednesday that there was insufficient culpability to prosecute Edna Jester of Blue Ash, who was arrested last week.

Police say a child's father complained that Jester kept the football. Police Capt. James Schaffer says there has been an ongoing dispute in the neighborhood over kids' balls landing in the woman's yard.

Since her arrest, Jester has handled a barrage of media calls and an invitation to appear on "Dr. Phil."

Jester says she might consider that, if she's feeling up to it.

The maximum penalty for a petty theft conviction in Ohio is six months in jail and a fine of up to $1,000.