If You Get Toilet Papered, Do You Just Roll With It?

I have a friend who has kids in HPISD schools, and this friend has twice (at least) admitted on Facebook to being the getaway driver for a rolling expedition. (The most recent TP’ing incident happened Friday night.) When I was growing up in Lakewood, my mom was none too pleased whenever we woke up to find our yard full of toilet paper (or, once, plastic forks). A generation later and a couple of miles to the west, do Park Cities parents feel the same way? Or are my friend’s brazen confessions an indication of an “it’s all in good fun” attitude toward houses getting rolled?

By Dan Koller Dec. 5, 2011 | 6:54 am | 15 Comments | Comments RSS
15 comments to "If You Get Toilet Papered, Do You Just Roll With It?"
  1. Avid Reader @ December 5, 2011 at 9:13 am
    All in good fun unless it is raining or expected to rain…and then I will hunt you down and give it back 10 fold.

  2. mk @ December 5, 2011 at 10:39 am
    Agree with Avid…if no rain’s expected, then it’s a rite of passage around here. A good cleanup tip from a friend; use a rake to drag off stuff that’s stuck in the higher branches.

  3. MA @ December 5, 2011 at 12:33 pm
    Fun once, maybe twice. Fifteenth time it happens on your end of the block you’ll change your mind. Any adult participating is a jerk and should be kicked in the ribs.

  4. Flag or caution tape is better @ December 5, 2011 at 2:43 pm
    I will not let my kids roll but drive them to flag or caution tape. Those are both much easier to clean up and most kids reuse the flags and tape on other yards. Chalked a few times on sidewalks. One birthday night we were flagged, taped, simply rolled and flocked (plastic flamingos) all by different people. It is not the mean spirited thing it was when I was a kid. I do know the parents that aren’t so crazy about it. I understand and we skip those houses. One mom actually came outside with candy…all in good fun. But really rolling a house over and over is just mean.

  5. M @ December 5, 2011 at 2:55 pm
    Finally an advantage to living in an apt

  6. 1Zima2Many @ December 5, 2011 at 3:18 pm
    I agree with FOCTIB. I don’t see much actual toilet paper anymore. It’s all flagging and caution tape. Much easier to clean up.

    It does seem to be a sign of affection (you roll friends of the same sex and crushes of the opposite sex). So, if you do get rolled, flagged, etc., it means your kids have friends. So there’s that.

  7. El Cangrejo @ December 5, 2011 at 3:24 pm
    My neighbors are a constant target. I have caught the rollers in the act a few times and most of them don’t even run when confronted. I thought rule number one was, don’t get caught?

    I have started walking over to my neighbors front door and ringing the doorbell while the rollers are in the act. (It must be more embarassing to get caught by the victim than their neighbor) The rollers are usually so busy trying to throw a roll and ripping up shreds of toilet paper to sprinkle in the bushes they don’t even notice me. Once I realized someone was driving them to do it, I stopped confronting the rollers and go straight to the driver and ask their name. I was curious if it was parent’s or an older sibling. It’s parents.

    If parents will drive their children to do it, I’m sure there are no consequences for getting caught.

    So here are my rules for rolling…if you must…
    1. Don’t get caught!
    2. Don’t exit the get away vehicle yelling and hollering. If I hear you I will surely go investigate.
    3. Two houses away is too close for the get away car. You should have to run at least to the nearest corner.
    3. If caught, RUN! and yell for you buddies to run too.
    4. If caught don’t use names. Such as “Hey Timmy RUN!”
    5. Don’t drop full rolls of paper in the yard when you run. You can save them for your next victim.

    I cleaned my neighbors up one time when they were out of time. It took about 5 minutes. I’m sure it took them much longer than that to spread the crap all over the yard. If you are going to roll, learn how to throw.

    I won’t be driving my children around to throw toilet paper all over the neighborhood. Forks and Flags don’t blow all over the neighborhood so I don’t think that is so bad, but I won’t be taking them to do it either. I am guilty of letting my daughter ring my fathers door bell and run back to the car so we can speed away.

    I asked my father if I would have been in trouble if I had got caught doing the same thing and he said I would have been in big trouble.

    What’s Chief Adams take on this?

  8. XT @ December 5, 2011 at 4:16 pm
    It’s all fun, but I only let my kids flag or caution tape now, the TP is just too much hassle and wasteful. While I would be furious if it happened to me, a well executeed TP bombing by teenagers is a thing of beauty. The one rule that you didn’t mention, but which to me is non-negotiable:

    * If you get caught, you clean it up. Period

    And not TP’ing when it is going to rain is just good manners.

  9. bump @ December 6, 2011 at 9:17 am
    Ahhh, reminds me of the good old days…when ding-dong-ditch was known by another name. At least there is no farming or mailbox baseball.

  10. Sam Tamborello @ December 6, 2011 at 10:48 am
    @el congrejo (the crab):

    ….speeding off in your car sounds like another strategy needs to be implemented. you might hit something or worse, someone. especially with kids in the car.

    I think Chief Adams would agree. I’ll leave the rest of your question to be answered by the chief. please be careful. otherwise, nothing wrong with having some fun.

  11. mainzer @ December 6, 2011 at 1:05 pm
    Forking a yard can be dangerous. It is easy to miss a clear fork in the grass while cleaning up and can be very dangerous for the person pushing the mower.

  12. momo3 @ December 6, 2011 at 7:46 pm
    Several years ago we were rolled the day that we left for vacation. When we returned several of our neighbors came by with pictures of the job as they had never seen one quite like it. Apparently the get away driver (older sister of one of the rollers) brought along her college boyfriend who just happened to be the quarterback for the school. The neighbors had cleaned up what they could but TP was WAY up in our red oaks. They seemed very impressed to have witnessed this feat, but we made them brownies anyway.

  13. Darren @ December 7, 2011 at 3:30 pm
    Get with the times and learn how to yarn bomb.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yarn_bombing

  14. Barbara @ November 28, 2012 at 7:32 pm
    I am 71 now but when my son was in high school my husband was in the military serving a 6 month unaccompanied deployment when my front yard was toilet papered. We had a datsun car and cars made in other countries were being damaged by someone. I got home after dark and no one was home but someone was toilet papering my house. The father was around the corner and I let him know how upset I was under the circumstances. He did not know about the car damage. I would never take a child to do that. Guess I am just old fashioned.

  15. John @ April 13, 2013 at 4:20 pm
    If they come out the best thing to do is start dancing! dont try to run away they’ll just shoot you. No one wants to get hurt so if you can try to force out a poop before they get to you. You can also roll around on their lawn it intimidates the victim and they’ll run back inside. Ive done this countless times and each time works out better than the first. And remember you can always call the cops if they see you tping their house.

Leave a Reply