Devastated by Halloween Losses, Homeowners Vow to Fight Back

PRIDE'S CROSSING, Mass.  In this upscale community on Boston's North Shore, residents are used to dealing with property damage from wind and rain off the Atlantic.  "We're a hardy, sea-faring people," says Charles "Biff" Watson, a descendant of one of the early traders who built their fortunes selling spices they brought back from China.  "But this," he says as he indicates scattered wreckage on his front lawn with a wave of his hand, "I can't understand what kind of sick individual would do this."

Possible perps caught on closed-circuit camera.

Watson is referring to an uprooted mailbox, into which a gang of teenagers has stuffed a pumpkin, befouling an assortment of Christmas catalogs that were delivered while he and his wife Trixie were away at their vacation home on Cape Cod.  "I thought flour-bombing was banned by the United Nations," Trixie says as she shakes her head.  "You'd think those Trick or Treat for UNICEF kids could act as peacekeepers or something."

The Hiroshima of TP'ing

Property and casualty insurers say Halloween 2009 was the most devastating on record, with eggings, shaving cream and toilet paper damage approaching a billion dollars nationwide.  "For some reason we had a real upsurge this year," says Nolan Evasherkski, an actuary at Modern Moosehead Insurance Company.  "Last year 15.1% of all homes were vandalized," he says.  "This year, the figure was 15.2%.  I don't know about you, but that's enough to set my heart racing."

"I couldn't stop myself--my friends egged me on."

Some blamed the poor economy and the feelings of alienation among young people that a tight job market and lower household incomes have generated.  "We won't know until the Federal Reserve releases its 'beige book' for the fourth quarter of the year," said Washburn University economist Norwell Salley.  "Until then, I'm following popular singer Eydie Gorme, who blames it on the bossa nova."

Eydie Gorme and Yanni:  "You always blame it on the bossa nova!"

Residents of this town are especially upset because many took precautions designed to ward off the young hooligans.  "We bought a tastefully offensive set of Smith & Hawken Yanni-themed wind chimes," says Mindy Farber, whose 6-bedroom colonial was egged.  "Whenever I play his music in the house, my cat's hair falls out in clumps."