Bump in the Night

As I settled in for a Sunday night sleep around 11:30, I heard a giant crash outside 
my apartment.   As I was in an accident about a month ago, I was fearful that someone had hit the rental car.  I was not prepared
 for what I saw when I peered through the shades.  Across the street, in the neighboring apartment's front yard was a minivan.  I'll repeat.  In the yard. Minivan.  My eyes almost popped out of my head.  I started yelling, "Call the police! Call the police!" as I watched children, all the age of maybe, MAYBE 14, fleeing from the vehicle.  Suddenly, at 11:30 at night, there were 15 to 20 kids between the ages of 10 and at most, 15, out in the middle of the street arguing over who had been involved in the theft.  There were other adults out there as well and they were telling the adults 
that they had not been involved in the accident.  

I was on the horn to the police telling them about the accident, the description
of the only suspect that I saw, while my boyfriend ran outside to see what in the
hell had just happened.  Once done with the 9-1-1 call, I ran back into the bedroom, got dressed, and ran outside.  I gave the police my name and phone number in case there were any questions.  

We sat and waited. waited. waited. AND waited.  It took the St. Louis City police over 15 minutes to get there AFTER I was seated on my front porch.  Enough time to give all of those children plenty of time to saunter, and I do mean, saunter home.  There were even children still lurking around when the police were there after midnight and nothing was said. They were never questioned. They were never asked why there were outside after midnight.

Some punks stole a woman's van, ran it into a yard, somehow missing a tree, two poles, and a car, and the police couldn't make it there in enough time to question a single kid that was standing around out there. They avoided hurting themselves and anyone else, Thank God.

I was appalled at the police and the fact that I saw 10 year old outside wandering the streets with zero adult supervision at midnight.  When I questioned my neighborhood liaison today about the curfew I was told that it is 11 o'clock on the weekdays and midnight on the weekends. MIDNIGHT!  A ten year old can legally roam the streets until midnight.  WHY?  I worry not only that the child has nothing better to do than get into shit, but also that there are more than enough freaks out there just waiting to get their paws on a ten year old child. I don't know which was more embarassing; a jr high school kid stealing a van or the police response.