Get off my porch!

Tonight I am angry! I am so freaking angry! Ken and I went out to dinner tonight. As we were pulling out of the driveway, he said to me, "Should we bring in the mail?" as there were two boxes on the front porch that had arrived during the day. We have a lot of plants and things on the porch so the items weren't visible. I said we'd just get them when we got home.

Fast forward to when we got home. As we pull in the driveway, we see our neighbor standing in the grass between our two driveways holding one of our boxes which is opened. She has a distressed look on her face. I jump out of the car as Ken goes to pull it in the garage. She tells me that three middle school-aged boys were walking around the neighborhood and had just knocked on their door. They'd asked if there were any jobs they could do to earn money to go to the pool. She told them she might have some things for them to do the next day if they came back, and then they walked across the driveways to our house. Thankfully, our neighbors happened to be watching from inside their house. They saw the kids knock on our front door and then noticed that when they walked down our front steps they were carrying a package. Our neighbor said he had noticed our packages before and knew that the kids hadn't walked up with one. He hopped on his motorcycle and chased them down to confront them. He found my box ripped open and ditched in a yard. Obviously, the kids didn't care for my dishes, and I am grateful that they didn't break them which they could have easily done.

Our neighbor called the police who came to investigate and checked out the neighborhood but so far has found no sign of them. We spoke with the officer who said to call him back if they happened to show up again the next night or if we say any sign of them.

I'm so mad that these kids thought they could just walk up to our house and take whatever they wanted. What upbringing are they getting? Any? Where are their parents? I thought I lived in a pretty decent neighborhood but now I'm really paranoid. What happens when I'm not here? What's going to be next? Breaking and entering?

I know dishes aren't a big thing, but I feel violated to some degree. I really want the police to catch these little shits and teach them a lesson, but because it isn't that major of a crime, I doubt anything will happen. Errrrr.....