Hello, I have a question regarding an unfortunate situation my fiancée and I went through yesterday in downtown Cranford. We were leaving a parking garage from around the 3rd floor, and behind us was a maybe 14/15 year old boy on a very expensive electric bike. He tried to pass our car but since we were almost down to the first level, we did not let him, he was also very close to our car so we got nervous and just kept driving.
When we got to the first floor, he stopped in front of our car, impeding us from leaving the garage. My fiancée rolled down his window and asked if the boy was okay, and he just stood there. In a few seconds, around 4 other teenage boys pulled up, also riding expensive electric bikes and all of them had on face coverings, those beanies that only show their eyes, almost as if they went out that day looking for trouble. They started harassing us, we did not react at all since we figured they just wanted the attention. They started asking to fight my fiancee, calling him names, threatening to break his headlight, touching his car. He kept his cool the entire time, and I told one of them to move and that no one was laughing at this. They started mocking that sentence and screaming “go home kid, no one is laughing”, which again, we did not give them a reaction.
They finally moved from the front of our car, and we got to a red light right by the garage, and they again surrounded our car and kept doing the same thing. I told my fiancée to just drive as the light had been green for some time and they wouldn’t let us go, but when he started driving and almost tapped one of their bikes, they finally moved. They kept driving us for a bit, saying insults at our car window, but we eventually lost them.
I no longer feel safe in a community that is already so expensive to live in, with privileged kids who likely get no consequences to their actions at home running around threatening people who just want to go on about their day.
My question is, if this happens again (we are in that area everyday), what are our rights? If they start touching our car and threatening, what can/should we do? Their faces were not visible, and they clearly wanted attention, but this is not okay. I also worry the authorities will not do anything considering the demographics/social status of these boys, and I’m just anxious about being in that area and being harassed again, or them finding our car and doing something. Has anyone else experienced this in the Cranford area? I wonder where these kids will be in a few years, I honestly worry, this was not something me or anyone I know did for fun when they were kids.