Candy for Blackmail

Essentially, this lady is on a fixed income and can't afford to shell out candy for Halloween. The brats decide to vandalize her home. Dear Abby's response? Pay up.

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DEAR ABBY: I am a retired widow, crippled with rheumatoid arthritis. Every October, I start dreading Halloween, which I consider to be a legal form of extortion.

Living on Social Security, I really don't want to waste money for candy. Also, it is difficult for me to get up and down every five minutes to hand out candy. Too many of the "children" are 16- to 19-year-old males.

I have tried keeping the lights off and "hiding" in my bedroom, but I wake the next morning to find toilet paper in my trees and shrubbery. Once, my front door had been sprayed "Stingy Old Witch." The police said they couldn't act because I didn't see who did it. Of course, even if I had seen them, they probably would have been in a costume. Do you have any suggestions? -- GROUCHY GRANDMA IN AUSTIN, TEXAS

DEAR GRANDMA: Yes. Because what you've done hasn't worked, buy a large bag of inexpensive candy -- they are often for sale at this time of year -- and when the "extortionists" knock on your door, pay up. Because your physical condition makes it difficult for you to get up and down, enlist the help of a relative or neighbor to help you dole it out, or leave the bowl outside by your door with a note saying: "Take one."

Blackmail

FFS, no one is entitled to candy, and likewise, no one is obligated to give it out. Giving in to these little shits' behavior just reinforces it.

I feel sorry for the OP.

It sounds like she lives in a shitty neighborhood, and I wouldn't advise a frail old lady to open the door for these "kids" in the first place.

That column is also on Yahoo. Abby is getting the shit kicked out of her in the comments section for that bullshit advice.

ETA: read some of the comments on UExpress. This one sticks out as infuriating

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Since she knows they're "16-to-19-year-old males" she must have done a lot more than hiding in her bedroom. And I've never seen any of what she describes merely because someone doesn't have their light on or hand out candy -- there had to be some interaction outside what we're being told about. There is more to this story than in this letter.

Yeah, maybe there was. So what? Maybe she's a crabby old lady who hollers because the kids play their music too loud, doesn't meant that they have the right to TP her yard because she doesn't hand out candy.

For gawd's sake, she's an old lady who wants to be left alone. I can picture myself in that situation a few decades from now; just me and my Chinster pups. I won't want to spend my pittance of retirement on brats, I'll just want to be left the f* alone.

I was disappointed in Abby's advice. I'm not sure what the solution is, but giving in isn't the answer. And what if she doesn't have anyone to help her answer the door? Finally, we all know what happens to an unsupervised candy dish left outside with a note to "Take one."

Hey dear Abby? you can kiss my ass! Having said that, you have to wonder what kind of society we have become when the mainstream advice is "Pay up anyway"! Ive never liked Halloween,because the words "Trick or Treat" mean give us candy or we will f up your shit. Also there are laws here prohibiting anyone over a certain age from trick or treating,A kid has to be 12 or younger. I myself am home on Halloween night, outside lights are off and I don't get bothered. They tend to avoid my home like a kind of instinct. and hell no I don't hide in my own home either. And no one messes with my property, One thing people who do give out stuff that they should consider is if one of those kids gets sick, guess who the police will come to. Or a lawsuit for something you had nothing to do with. Its happened in the past to people. A person would have to be a fool in this day and age to give candy to strange kids.On the flip side the parents have to be fools to take candy from strangers for their brats. There is another thing to consider. That this is often used as a way to case, or get a look in your home for future burglaries. yep that's fact, Older thugs will use kids for this purpose.

The poor elderly lady has already done her "duty" to society. She should be left alone. Satan's face on a ritz cracker, can we get peace and quiet from the mob "the children". If they want a free-for-all, can we let slip the hounds of hell?

Christ alive, so the best advice Abby can give is, when faced with vandalism because some kyds didn't get a few bits of poxy Halloween candy, reward the vandals with candy?

Something does not compute :headbrick

When I was a kid, there were houses in the neighborhood that gave candy and houses that didn't, and nobody cared. That is how it is in my neighborhood now, some turn on their lights, some don't, and again, nobody seems to care either way.

If someone chooses not to participate for whatever reason, that is their choice and should be respected. Intimidating someone into doing something they don't want to do is just not right. Even though it's only cheap candy, it's the principle of the matter.

This is possibly the worst piece of advice I've seen in a long time.

While a lot of us do live in better neighborhoods where light on/light off is respected, like others have said, this lady may live on the wrong side of the tracks. Pahrunts on that side are doing an even worse job, these older teenagers probably have no one to shame them if they inappropriately go trick-or-treating, nor a duh or moo to know exactly what they have been up to all night. These delinquents probably relish Halloween as an excuse for vandalism and petty crime. It's not even about candy. You think teenagers with beards have trouble getting candy? No, they're looking for liquor and cigs. Perhaps the lady wouldn't let shitford climb up on her roof to retrieve his Frisbee ten years ago (he didn't have a duh to do it and she was worried about the liability) and he's got it out for her.
Short and simple, it's time for it to stop. No one has any right to come on to the lady's property. If I knew her, I'd volunteer to sit in the bushes with my pistol and wait for these mysterious vandals. I'd have the pistol for my own protection, but the greatest victory would be with my camera that I would use to record their vandalism and use to prosecute them. Get them in the system where they belong, before it is too late.

Dear [insert name here] pretty much needs to simply stop. I havent seen a single advice column on the web that hasnt been shitty. They don't give decent advice and they usually side with the asshole in the situation.