Neighbor's Tricycle Left in My Driveway

[lcarpent1229]

The kids in my neighborhood are always playing in my yard and in the street unsupervised. A child left his tricycle in my driveway completely unattended. I moved it to the street by the curb so my husband could get his car into the garage and in the process of lifting the tricycle, a few parts fell off. I put the parts next to the tricycle and went into my house to get my son out of the car. By the time I went back outside to move the tricycle back to the sidewalk, the child's father was coming to my door threatening to sue me for the cost of the tricycle as the neighborhood kids told him I threw it out of anger. I am wondering what are my rights as the owner of my house and what are the neighbor's rights regarding items left on my property? Is there a legal way to stop the neighborhood children from using my front yard? The parents are never visible to monitor their children. I live in CA if that makes a difference.

[Mr. Knowitall]

If you threw the tricycle and damaged it, you can be held liable for the damage you caused.

[lcarpent1229]

Thanks for the information on the tricycle. The problem is, I didn't throw it, but the neighborhood children are saying I did. If they ask me to pay I will regardless of if I was at fault or not, but I think I am more concerned with trying to keep the children from leaving things in my yard because I don't want this to happen again. The real question is, is there anything I can legally do to keep them off except for putting up a huge fence?

[Mr. Knowitall]

If you can persuade them not to enter, then no barrier is required. If not, then a barrier such as a fence would appear to be the only alternative.

[aardvarc]

Wheel or drag whatever is left in your yard into the house or enclose it within your garage. Then call local police and advise them that you're in possession of found property. They may come and retrieve it, or, more likely, they may say "thanks for letting us know - if someone calls to report their stuff missing or stolen, we'll know where to send them". Either way, you've now constructively deprived the children of the crap they've left in your yard, while simultanetously negating any claim by the parents that you"stole" their kid's stuff (since you properly reported the "finding" of the property to the police). Either they'll be making freqent trips to the police station to retrieve their stuff, or they'll be at the mercy of you being home and feeling like answering your door. If their property enters your yard, you're only obligated to show it reasonable care - you're not obligated to track them down and make sure the stuff is immediately returned. Obviously the kids don't care about the stuff, and the parents will only care if it's enough of a pain in their behinds to force them to either keep track of the stuff FOR the kids, or to properly "motivate" the kids to do so themselves.

I had a similar prob with a neighbor once. Once. (in appropriate Joe Pesci accent)

It only took a single occasion of taking the bike to the local police district office as a good citizen turning in "found property", and once the kids got his bike back, surprisingly it never entered my yard again. Hard to change a child's negligence. Easy to motivate a parent.