I think she's right. The family next door has exceeded their welcome. My kids occassionly send stuff over the fence. We try to play so we don't do that and bother the neighbors.

If a ball goes over the fence time after time, it belongs to the person whose yard it is in. Shame on that dad for calling the police.

It seems that , neighborliness, common courtesies & manners have gone out the window. Shame on the Dad & good for her.

I agree with Linda. If the kids' yard isn't large enough to contain the ball when they're playing, then they need to go to (or be taken to) the park or schoolyard to play. It's totally unfair to expect an 89-year-old woman to be at the beck and call of the kids to return their ball whenever it goes into her yard, and she certainly shouldn't be expected to just allow the kids onto her property whenever they feel like it.

Let the kids' father erect some sort of screen to keep the ball out of the neighbor's yard.

I agree with Linda too. That father and those cops have no common sense.

While I applaud her tactic to keep the football, and I am assuming it went over the fence often, and that she had to return it over and over worrying about her windows being broke or her garden damaged, there is more to the story. The cops didn't just drag her off because of some whiny kids and a football.

I will say the article does say the police gave her two warning to return it before they arrested her. At that point she shoulds have returned it by handing it over to the police and gotten the police on her side to speak with the boys and give them a warning not to let the incident happen again. "Police warned Jester twice and finally arrested her after she refused to accept a citation."

Cops don't like it when someone does not listen to their warnings and in ths case the law is not on the side of the woman so she will lose in court. The police actually gave her a chance to remedy the situation before it got to this and she refused. I also think there may be more to the story as cops do not arrest someone merely for refusing to accept a citation. They just mail it to the address and consider it served. There may have been some rowdy behavior on the part of the woman. Hopefully the court can sort this all out. Maybe the woman needs some sort of assisted livng to help her deal with things like this so they do not explode.

I'm thinking the crime rate in Blue Ash must be pretty darn low if this is getting police attention. If I were paying taxes there, I'd be plenty annoyed.

I can see it from both sides. While I think the parents were silly to call the police, I think the woman should have returned the ball once the police came. As Dilly Dally said, it was disobeying the police that got her arrested.

But I also live next to kids who throw balls into my yard all the time, and don't think it's such a big deal to toss them back if I happen to be outside or let the kids into my yard to get them if I'm not.

Here's the original article....
http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20081020/NEWS01/310200028/1055/NEWS

I see no mention of this fence you are all referring to.... yet alone being at the 'beck and call' of the kids!

We can't forget the risk she takes each time she has to return their football - one false step and she has a broken hip - not good in any case, but at her age, she would probably die as a result.

I can imagine this family is from another planet where common sense and respect for one's neighbor (and others) is non-existant. What a lesson this teaches these kids - that law enforcement supports dad as a bully and the elderly can be tormented with no recourse - I see a bad future for these kids!

I saw it on the news last night (egads...) and the boy's mother was telling that her son had saved his own money to buy the football, yada, yada, yada. Well if it was so special to him, you'd think he would be sure and keep it safe on his own property, or at a park.

Per the article
An 89-year-old woman arrested for not giving neighborhood children their football back after it landed repeatedly in her yard said today she'll return the ball.
But not right away.

"That's my only way of getting through to these children," Edna Jester said. "I'll give it back to them later, but not right now

Officers were called about 6:30 p.m. Thursday to her home in the 4900 block of Myrtle Avenue by one of the childrenÂs fathers, Blue Ash Police Capt. James Schaffer said.

The football apparently was thrown into JesterÂs yard, and it wasnÂt the first time, he said. The issue has been an ongoing dispute in the neighborhood, he said.

Tanis son is in junior high school.

Tanis said his son and some of his cousins and friends were playing football in the street Thursday when the ball landed in JesterÂs yard, where she was gardening. He said Jester picked up the football, refused to give it back and told him to call the police.
Is it even legal to play football in the street?
I'm left wondering if this wasn't a very common occurrence, and if the boys maybe broke or trampled flowers with their ball or when retrieving it.
I too see a bad future for the boys who have no respect for others property.

Here is a link that might be useful: The complete story (clickable)

I think, if it's in your yard, it's your's....We have a "sweet little boy" in our neighborhood and he is constantly throwing things in another neighbor's yard...She has lawn service and they gather up all the trash and dispose of it...One day, he was playing on the street and his ball went down in her yard and he didn't ask if she'd throw it back, he demanded! When she said, she wouldn't, he laughed and then she said, next time it comes down here, in the creek it goes....Guess who didn't believe her and guess how threw the ball back into her yard? Guess where the ball went! It's going to be a hard, long life for these youngsters if they can't obey the law.....

The sad thing is at 89 people may not get along with younger people and many things that don't bother me at 76, may really drive me nuts at 89==if I live so long. Sad to say, teens love to "bug" people that is one way to get attention. I would explain to them and the parents, that at my age, if I broke a leg==hip or?? we don't heal as fast, and we do have complications. Might help.