If you've ever had a teenager around your house, you know they are an easily bored lot.  Thinking back to my wonder years, I was too busy with school, sports, and girls to get into any serious mischief.  But I went to high school in Terrell, Texas, which is not exactly the most happening place in the world.  There were those in my group of friends who would pass the time by toilet-papering a buddy's house, taking potshots at road signs, having drinking parties out at the end of T Road, and occasionally tipping a cow or two.

Things must be really boring in tiny Pearl River, Louisiana.  This town in St. Tammany Parish, just north of Slidell, has a population of just 2,432 people.  There seems to be a dearth of cows in the area, so on Labor Day five teenagers were searching for something else they could tip over for fun.

Now there's one thing that Pearl River has a lot of--Christmas trees.  The Shady Pond Tree Farm sits on 45 acres just south of Pearl River, and bills itself as the "supplier of exotic Christmas trees for Southeast Louisiana."  It also supplied an irresistible temptation for these five lads.  They decided it would be festive to ingest copious amounts of cannabis, and while doing so, drive down to the old tree farm.  Once there, they proceeded to go on a tree-tackling spree, completely destroying ten trees.

They had so much fun that they decided to do it again the following weekend, but this time the owner was ready for them.  He called the state forestry department which set up motion-detection cameras.  On this occasion the boys damaged more than 50 trees and were caught on video doing so.  They were promptly identified, arrested, and charged with simple criminal damage to property and criminal trespass.

 

Christmas tree-tackling may seem relatively innocuous to the uninitiated but, mind you, these are exotic Christmas trees.  The total damage runs to about $6000, so the charges leveled at the lads could be upped to felonies.

As the saying goes, "Boys will be boys."  And as Forrest Gump's mama used to say, "Stupid is as stupid does."  These boys better hope that the owner of the tree farm will forgive and forget their stupidity.

 

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