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Homecoming prank turns dangerous
Published Saturday, September 20, 2008
NATCHEZ — It’s homecoming time and students are rife with youthful mischief.
One of the more typical means by which to expend homecoming fever is to toilet-paper houses in the area.
But sometimes a harmless prank can turn into something dangerous.
At 8:22 p.m. Wednesday, a teenager was struck by a car on Morgantown Road while toilet-papering a house.
The driver of the car told the Adams County Sheriff’s Office that he was traveling between 30 and 35 miles per hour when two subjects ran across the road, according to the incident report.
One of the subjects, a 15-year-old girl, was hit by the car and transported to Natchez Regional Medical Center.
Adams County Sheriff Ronny Brown said toilet-papering takes place every year during homecoming.
He said he’s never seen it turn dangerous before though.
“It hasn’t ever been a real big deal,” he said.
“This is the only incident I know when someone has been hit by a vehicle.”
Natchez Police Sgt. Craig Godbold said teens who roll people’s houses are typically dressed all in black so as not to get caught by the house’s occupants.
“This girl rolled the house, ran across the street and was wearing black clothes and got hit by the car,” he said.
Brown said it is a distinct possibility that teens out pulling pranks can get hurt.
“It can happen anywhere,” he said.
“They’re out there playing, they walk out in the street and they get run over.”
Godbold said these types of pranks should just be avoided.
“They’re out having fun, I understand that, but there’s a price to pay,” he said. “They shouldn’t be doing that anyway, but everybody knows it’s homecoming fun.”
Brown said when patrol deputies see toilet papering taking place, they will stop and talk to the teens, notify the residents of the house and then make sure no damage was done to the dwelling.
Godbold said the police department will check to see if the teens are drinking and driving.
“If they’re drinking and driving they’re going to jail,” he said.
He also said in the cases of high school pranks, teens often drive recklessly.
Comments
Posted by Southernly18 (anonymous) on September 20, 2008 at 1:56 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Well...and the moral of this story is...stay your little butts in the house and do your homework! lol! But seriously..I hope she's ok.
Posted by sayitloud (anonymous) on September 20, 2008 at 7:25 a.m. (Suggest removal)
So what about the girl that got hit? This whole article was about TPing and we all know how to do that but tell us about the girl that got hit!
Posted by redusmfan (anonymous) on September 20, 2008 at 7:25 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I hope she gets well soon. We did this and it was never a big deal. We even went back to help clean it up afterwards...lol...
Be careful and do not run out in front of traffic when you toilet paper a house....
I guess it is a good thing she was not at McDonalds instead, then she would have been shot....
Posted by kpage (anonymous) on September 20, 2008 at 7:47 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Good point red! We never helped clean up a TP mess because we never owned up to it...or else our house was next!
Toilet Papering a house
Can be such fun
Just toss up a wad
Then tuck tail and run.
Hey little girl
All dressed in black!
Stay out of the road
Or you may get smacked!
Innocent fun stopped in its tracks.
Got hit by a car cause she wore black.
Something tells me she won't be back.
Posted by freedom42 (anonymous) on September 20, 2008 at 9:02 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Kids don't think about danger when having "fun". I hope she recovers and was not seriously injured, and I hope everyone has learned a lesson from this. Mainly - always be aware of your surroundings and BE SAFE!
Posted by amawilson (anonymous) on September 20, 2008 at 9:02 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I see everyone asking about the little girl that got hit. I know the girl and her family very well. She is doing fine. She is very lucky. She is bruised up pretty badly and soar. However she is at home doing well. And as for rolling houses. It may not be the right thing to do but it is something we have all done.
Posted by naturegirl (anonymous) on September 20, 2008 at 9:12 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Actually I never have, because I was always taught that playing pranks on others was wrong. But I am glad she was not badly injured.
Posted by tedhinson (anonymous) on September 20, 2008 at 9:14 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Glad she is doing ok. Did my share of tping as a teen, as did my sons and their friends who thought it exceptionally funny to tp MY house then come inside and tell me to go out and look at their ARTWORK....lol. I always loved having the kids around and never minded their pranks. I miss those innocent days.
Posted by ProNatchez (anonymous) on September 20, 2008 at 10:22 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I wonder if she had that "Deer in the headlights look" on her face?
Glad to hear that she will be O.K.
Posted by tiredoftalk (anonymous) on September 20, 2008 at 11:04 a.m. (Suggest removal)
The girl that was hit was wearing a camo shirt and blue jeans. Anyone that was there that night knew that. Anyone at the hospital can confirm that. These kids are doing the same thing that has been done for years, and lots of other teens were doing it the same night. There was no drinking involved by the students, and she should have been more careful, but it was an accident! This is a dark road and and the girl was at the wrong place at the wrong time. A few seconds would have made a difference. She is bruised and fine now.
Posted by natchez500 (anonymous) on September 20, 2008 at 2:14 p.m. (Suggest removal)
let the young people have homecoming and the fun that goes with it everybody knows that accidents do happen
at least they are not out stealing generators or selling drugs
they can do my yard anyday, i did it when i was in school and you probably did it too
Posted by new2vilou (anonymous) on September 20, 2008 at 2:25 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I completely agree natchez500! Come roll my place anyday if it keeps you from stealing, drinking, smoking, shooting etc..
Posted by EnKiKur (anonymous) on September 20, 2008 at 3:20 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Natchez should pass an ordinance requiring all pranksters to wear reflective tape on their clothing. That would let the fun continue in a socially responsible way.
Posted by sayitloud (anonymous) on September 21, 2008 at 7:13 a.m. (Suggest removal)
it may be all innocent but I happened to have noticed these teenagers Thursday night and they were hauling it the wrong way on the one way streets downtown and acting very careless. But I'm glad the girl will be OK.
Posted by sideline (anonymous) on September 21, 2008 at 8:36 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Thanks for all the clean comments.lol
Posted by supermom (anonymous) on September 21, 2008 at 11:28 a.m. (Suggest removal)
If tp'ing is the worst thing your teenager is doing right now, that's a good thing.
Kudos to whoever got my yard last night, you did a great job!! Way to take advantage of those great big trees in my yard...... lol!
Posted by pbnj (anonymous) on September 21, 2008 at 1:12 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Naturegirl
did you not ever roll a house actually because you were taught to not play pranks or because no one invited you. Not trying to be rude but rolling is harmless fun, accidents can happen while doing anything if one is to get careless.
Posted by dixiemama (anonymous) on September 21, 2008 at 2:27 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Thankfully she is going to be ok. Let this be a valuable lesson to all teens!
Posted by squeetlebomb (anonymous) on September 21, 2008 at 2:32 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I was tping houses as a teenager over 40 years ago. Lot's of innocent fun. Haven't seen one yet as good as the ones I did. Sometimes you just have an unavoidable accident. Glad she is doing OK.
Posted by youneverknow (anonymous) on September 21, 2008 at 2:34 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Maybe Naturegirl was taught to respect other people.
Maybe she was taught pranks were not funny.
Maybe she was taught to have self respect.
I do not agree everybody did it ; so it must be ok.
Posted by freedom42 (anonymous) on September 21, 2008 at 3:16 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Many people do not find pranks such as this funny. I don't think I would, because it entails a lot of cleaning up. Pbnj's comments were totally uncalled for. Everyone has an opinion and I don't feel naturegirl was being rude. That comment is like many made on here to people that cause others to quit blogging.
Posted by bushycooter (anonymous) on September 21, 2008 at 5:55 p.m. (Suggest removal)
we always put a bunch of dog crap in a paper sack and then lit it on fire on someones front porch, rang the doorbell and ran off. lol
Posted by growup (anonymous) on September 21, 2008 at 6:54 p.m. (Suggest removal)
It may be a prank to roll people's houses and it may not be funny to some of you but they weren't rolling your house so idk what you really are complaining about, your going to comment on an article about a 15 year old girl getting hit by a car for having fun? Your going to laugh at the fact that she was hit by a car because she didn't cross the road fast enough? And say oh I wonder if she had the "deer in headlights look"? A fifteen year olds life is not something to comment like that on. And obviously nobody on this page knows Peyton or how great of a girl she is. She was crossing the road when a car was said to be going at least 55 mph down the road is what the cops told us. She luckily is okay and was worried about what others were thinking of her and wanted no one feeling sorry for her. I guess if she checked out this page she would see that no one is and that they are all laughing at her incident. You really need to think about the life of others because these comments are not funny one bit. SYMPATHY would be the thing to feel, not anger or amusement. Nothing about this was funny. GROW UP. I'm sorry that you must not have any children, because I promise you if you did they either have, are, or will be rolling one day. It's innocent it happens every year so quit whining about how bad of a prank it is because it is not going to stop here and that is not even the issue, PEYTONS LIFE was the issue. But I see that her life is only pure entertainment for the people on this website. Get a life and a heart, and do a favor to Peyton, her family, and friends, and don't make rude comments about her being hit again.
Posted by hossfly (anonymous) on September 21, 2008 at 8:38 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Oh yeah, this is all good clean fun. That is because these were private school students!!! Let it be NHS students and the ND would print this in a negative way and it would be THE headline.
Posted by rose18 (anonymous) on September 21, 2008 at 10:26 p.m. (Suggest removal)
good way to get shot these days
Posted by BOBCAT1974 (anonymous) on September 23, 2008 at 12:51 p.m. (Suggest removal)
My niece goes to NHS she's white and she has friends in all the schools around, privite or public they get together and do some serious Tp rolling.It's clean fun and if this is the worst thing these kids ever do then they must be some pretty good kids.I did it,and i would sometimes drive the geta way car.I do remember when my sister lived in Baton Rouge several years ago their was an exchange student who went to a house and was going to roll,this young man was killed in the process.It was inocent prank,but costly.It did cost him his life.So make sure whoevers house you're rolling is gona be safe.Alot of times i would call and let whoever, know we were gona roll their house,the kids never new i called to warn them.The next day they would go back and clean up their mess.After a couple times of having to clean it up they decided that they did'nt want to roll houses any more.It takes a couple of mintes to roll and alot longer to clean it up.Just use you're head with these kids and stay ahead of the game.
Posted by hossfly (anonymous) on September 27, 2008 at 10:52 a.m. (Suggest removal)
What is good and clean about messing up someone's yard?
Posted by somegood2 (anonymous) on September 29, 2008 at 3:59 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I agree ama wilson. They are just having fun as we did when we were that age. Think about what you did when you were young before you comment. Kids are going to be kids. It is just unfortunate that someone was hurt. She just needs to be more careful next time. You will only be a child once, you will be an adult longer than a child. Enjoy it while you can because when it is gone it is gone!
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