There's a reason law enforcement officers recommend you not take the law into your own hands -- if you happen to go overboard, you can go from being the victim to being the criminal. Then there's the extreme a Wilkes woman and her son are accused of going to. For reasons that will become obvious, we'll leave the 53-year old woman and her 22-year old son, as well as their victims, nameless.

Deputies responded to the victims' home twice this week -- Wednesday and Thursday night. For some reason the woman and her son had chosen to highlight the side of his grandparents' house with an incredibly bright spotlight. When a deputy came out Wednesday night, he could see the side of the victims' house lit up like a Friday night football game, the spotlight proudly standing on a tripod in a bedroom, shining through the window against the side of the house next door. The deputy proceeded to knock on the door and ring the door bell -- for ten minutes, he says, and no one came to the door. So, he took photos -- undoubtedly the shaft of bright light showed up well in the dark of shortly after 10pm.

Fast forward to last night. Same situation. This time, the deputy goes next door and finds a thumbtack taped to the doorbell, pointy side facing out. So now it's become personal. The deputy says he rang the doorbell, and this time mama came to the door. She said the spotlight was where it was for "security." Exactly what wasn't secure about the side of grandma and grandpa's house, no one is saying. Enter the 22-year old grand son, who freely admitted it was him who had aimed the light next door, making the inside of the grand-folk's house look like an Alaskan night in the summer. When asked why the thumbtack was put on the doorbell, the young man said it was his house, his land, and his right to do whatever he wanted. That was the straw that broke the camel's back, so to speak.

After he informed the blinding duo they were under arrest an argument ensued, with the deputy eventually laying down the law: come with him or have him sit outside until a judge gave him a search warrant and come in to rifle the place and see what else he might find. (Okay, part of that may be poetic license.) So the son went back in the house and got the spotlight, making a stop on the way to call 9-1-1 and claim the officer was trying to force his way in the house. Mind you, the officer was on the front porch at the time. Sonny seems to have neglected the fact that the people on the other end of 9-1-1 can talk to the deputy on his radio -- and they did. Another ruckus ensued, as the deputy went in to relieve the son of the telephone and mama stood in the door to block his entrance. The officer got into the house only to find the young man behind the lens of a camcorder, producing evidence of the part of the story that would make it look -- well, bad for the deputy.

Bottom line...mom and son were both carted off to jail and face multiple charges. Presumably grams and gramps slept peacefully without the klieg light shining on the side of the house.