April 11, 2009 -- I have a friend who is president of his homeowners association in the Dallas , Texas suburbs. They were having a terrible problem with litter near some of his association' s homes. The reason according to Wallace (my friend) is that six very large, luxurious new houses are being built right next to their community.

The trash was coming from the Mexican laborers working at the construction sites and included 
bags from McDonald's, Burger King and 7-11, plus coffee cups, napkins, cigarette butts, coke cans, empty bottles, etc. He went to see the site supervisor and even the general contractor, politely urging them to get their workers not to litter the neighborhood, to no avail. He called the city, county, and police and got no help there either.  So here's what his community did. They organized about twenty folks, named themselves The "Inner Neighborhood Services" group, and arranged to go out at lunch time and "police" the trash themselves.

It is what they did while picking up the trash that is so hilarious.

They bought navy blue baseball caps and had the initials "INS" embroidered in gold on the caps. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand what they hoped people might mistakenly think 
the letters really stand for. After the Inner Neighborhood Services group's first lunchtime pickup detail, with all of them wearing their caps and some carrying cameras, 46 out of the total of 68 
construction workers did not show up for work the next morning -- and haven't come back yet.

It has been ten days now!

The General Contractor, I'm told, is madder than hell, but can't say anything publicly because he could be busted for hiring illegal aliens. Wallace and his bunch can't be accused of impersonating federal personnel, because they have the official name of the group recorded in their homeowner association minutes along with a notation about the vote to approve formation of the new subcommittee -- and besides, they informed the INS in advance of their plans and according to 
Wallace, the INS said basically, "Have at it!"

SO, FOLKS, I THINK YOU COULD SAY THAT TEXAS INGENUITY TRIUMPHS AGAIN!

OrMag comment: This reminds me of the time, last summer, I came out of Jim's Market at Banks, Oregon.  There was a crowd of teenaged boys around a car containing two pretty girls parked in the handicapped space next to the supermarket door.  Rather than threatening them with a call to the cops, a sudden thought came to me.  I told one of the boys, "That's a shame, isn't it?"

"What's a shame?" he asked.

Pointing at the girls' car, I said, "Life can be so damned hard, at times.  I mean, two pretty girls who should be having the best time of their lives, and one or both of them is crippled."

Then, as I walked off, shaking my head sadly, the boy ran to the car and told the girls what I had said.  The car started up instantly, and moved out of the handicapped spot.  I should get a medal for that one if for no other reason than I managed to get all the way to my car before I started laughing.   (LL/OrMag)