Video works for me.

You're right.  Let's lop his limbs right off.

Your outrage is misplaced SC.  The kid walks onto another person's property carrying an Obama sign.  Where did he get it?  Did his parents give it to him or did he steal it?  I think his parent(s) were involved because he didn't even HESITATE.

He walked up in that yard like he was told to do it.  The fact it is broad daylight out also makes it look like an adult (an authority figure in this kid's life) told him to do it.  Most kids who do things like this on their own do it at night and on the down low...they don't want to get caught and be punished.  Even when its older kids forcing the younger ones to do something "bad" the kids are more hesitant and unwilling.

When kids do stuff like this in broad daylight you can bet its because someone told them it was ok.

I think it is despicable for an adult to use a child to commit a crime or do something they wouldn't do themselves.  I also agree with Tex.  If the homeowner knew it was a kid then I have big issues with him but not as big as the adult behind the kid's behavior.

Either way you look at it, the kid is the victim.  You're outraged at the property owner, and I say that is misplaced.  The outrage should be at the adult encouraging the behavior.

If that was my kid I would tell them they got exactly what they deserved.  But that's because I don't train them to be vandals or thieves.

Your right it was a terrible thing to do. The man should have shot him in the ass with rock salt. If you research a bit, you'll find criminals often get an early start in life. This guy probably taught this kid a lesson, at least maybe he'll think twice about stealing again. I don't want to see kids hurt, but having been shocked accidentally myself this way (working in close proximity to farm grade electrical fences) he was never in any danger. People are making it out like it was the fence in Jurassic Park.

It doesn't say how the guy electrified the wire (which didn't appear to be connected to the sign itself). But he probably used a 6 volt battery system like those used on farms. They will get your attention, but they are hardly lethal. The wire was visible in the video. Teach your kids to respect others property and it never will be an issue. I'm sick of people that think they can do whatever they want, wherever they want to. Sure it's a stupid sign now, what happens when he crawls into someones house to take something and gets a bullet in his brain. Better to learn now with nothing more than a love tap, than the later.

As Paul Harvey would say... here is the rest of the story.

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/1274504.html

The guy put up a sign that they were eletrified. The kids motives were questionable. Personally, I feel like the guy was within his rights. I don't know if it was the right thing to do though.

Hmm . . . according to that link, the sign wasn't on his own property, but on some community property owned by an HOA.

And the parents didn't plan it.

But that makes it all okay, doesn't it?

From the article:

Sheriff Lindy Pendergrass said he doesn't plan to file charges. The deputy who investigated Tuesday said the pet-fence setup probably was legal, Turschak said, but perhaps more trouble than it was worth. Turschak said Wednesday morning that he would pull the plug on the signs. The camera, though, stayed.

And Wednesday afternoon while the Turschaks were at a daughter's soccer game, it captured an angry-looking woman striding up.

"We got home and both signs were gone," he said. "Broad daylight."

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The owner even posted a sign telling people about the electric fence.

How much you wanna bet that even though he captured a thief on tape, nothing will happen to the woman?

Better re-read that SC...it is indeed his yard...but it is maintained (landscaped if its like our subdivision) by the HOA because its the first thing people see when entering the community.

"The corner of the Turschak's yard where the signs are posted is a prominent point in the Oak Crest subdivision just south of Chapel Hill, so the homeowners association maintains it.

It's far enough from the Turschaks' home that it's not obviously part of their yard, and the boy's mother, Johanna Gisladottir, said she and many neighbors thought it was community property. They were troubled, she said, that someone had apparently claimed the corner on behalf of the Republican Party."

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Sorry, but the parent's sound EXACTLY like the sort of people who got the kid to do it, if even indirectly.

First, they came pounding on the owner's door because their kid was shocked vandalizing a neighbor's property?  I'd be knocking on the door offering an apology if it were my kid, not indignation.  That alone speaks more truth than what came out of their mouths.  Of course they are going to deny putting him up to it.

Second, they have a problem with someone taking over what they considered (wrongly) community property, but they don't have an issue doing the exact same thing....but when they do it...they call it "mixing it up."

Whatever.

double post

Whether or not the parents were involved, and whether or not the child new whether ir was wrong or not...the guy should NEVER have done what he did. Frankly, it was stupid of him. There's no justifying it, a responsible adult wouldn't do it.

Eh, first off, I didn't see anything that showed that they put him up to it. Yes, it does show that he's in need of some talking to, to put it mildly. Secondly, the parents are justified in being outraged. Like I said above, an adult shouldn't do those things. There's laws and police for a reason.

Actually, a nine-year-old could legitimately fall for Obama's bullcrap. This would make it self-motivated. Anyways, moving on.

I'm a believer in defend yourself laws. If somebody you don't know is entering your property, and stealing your things, then you have a right to take nonlethal methods to prevent it. If he's entering your actual local area or committing animal or sexual abuse, you have theright to take any methods to prevent it.

The wire looked pretty visible to me, and I believe he went into it himself. It could be early-onset masochism or stupidity.

A homeowner has the right to use his property as he sees fit, so long as it doesn't violate local laws and ordinances.  An electric pet fence doesn't violate the law as stated in the article.

I can't imagine being indignant with a neighbor over what they do on their own property because it interfered with my kid's vandalism. 

Okay, all of you who think this is funny or are making excuses, I have a proposition for you.....

I will give $1,000.00 to anyone who can locate this guy's house, go into his front yard, and then grab and hold onto those electrified signs for five minutes.

Then I want you to tell the rest of us just how funny it is.

Any takers?

Vigilantism Tova, it's not allowed for a reason. That's what this man did, he took the law into his own hands. If things were designed to work that way, we wouldn't need police. Those exceptions you claim are when someone is breaking into your home or assaulting you (usually and adult individual). And in those cases, it's self defense. This wasn't that,and this kid, this nine year old child, mind you, was doing neither.

Let me rephrase that, "It's frowned upon."  Rule of law essentially, if we all started taking the law into our own hands, then there goes our entire law system and civil order.