Last week the Daily Liberal ran a series of reports detailing the experiences of more than a dozen residents whose families had been the victims of assaults, break-ins, theft, intimidation, vandalism attacks, verbal abuse and arson attempts in recent months.

But the stories many residents told suggested there were also four-legged victims.

"They tried to kill my dog," one woman said.

"They threw a pig's ear over the fence with crushed glass and Ratsak on it to try to bait him. Thank God he won't eat any food that's not given to him by me."

Another resident said a nearby dog had been taken to the vet the same day the pig's ear had been found and it had died.

"We think it was baited," she said.

Some residents believed there was a new tactic being employed by would-be intruders.

"The latest is that they throw rubber balls over the fence with needles inside," one woman said.

"They know the dogs chew the balls and they want the dogs to eat the needles and die.

"That way they can get into our yards and houses."

As she spoke another resident's hand shot up to her mouth. She said she had found one of the rubber balls matching the other residents' descriptions in her own backyard that morning and had thought nothing of it.

"Pick it up straight away," another resident warned.

"Any balls that go in your yard, pick them up and check them. I've found six in the past week."

One man said he had given police the names of some children who had used a slingshot to fire marbles at his dog.

"They fired them at all the streetlights and broke them and now they're firing them at the people and their animals," he said.

One woman said her dog went missing from her yard and she later found out two little girls had been walking around with it. They claimed a neighbour had given it to them.

"I found out who he was and knocked on his door and when he answered I asked for my dog back," she said.

"He argued that it wasn't my dog. I told him I was going to the police station."

The woman said she reported the theft to police.

"I did have photos of him but he was only a few weeks old so he wasn't microchipped or registered so they said there wasn't much they could do," she said.

"But anyway I got on Facebook and said I knew who had my dog and that he was refusing to hand him over. There were hundreds of comments from people offering to come and help me get my dog back.

"It was my three-year-old's dog and he was shattered. He couldn't sleep because he was that devastated and all he wanted was his puppy back.

"So a group of seven or eight of us turned up at (the man's) house. I walked up to the door and said to him, 'I've come for my dog'.

"He looked out the door and realised he had no chance against all of us. Then he had the nerve to say, 'OK, I'll make a deal with you. You give me a carton of beer and you can have your dog back'.

"Another lady walked up and asked if she could have a look at the dog. She grabbed it and bolted to her car and took off up the street in it. Then he threw his shoes at the car and I'm thinking, how juvenile is this?

"Then he told me some story about how he had picked it up off the street after two people had thrown it out the window and I'm thinking, why the hell didn't you ring the RSPCA or take it to the vet then?"

One resident told the Daily Liberal he had received a huge shock when he found two children had climbed into his yard and were crouched near his gate.

But he said it was difficult to blame children for what had happened in his street.

"It comes back to the parents," he said.

"The parents need to look after their bloody kids. They have got to take responsibility.

"We can keep ringing the police but they can only do so much. These families always have an excuse and I think they get away with it. I've lived around here since I was a child and, fair dinkum, I've never seen it as bad as it is now."

Another woman said she believed there was a particular motivation behind much of the troublemakers' behaviour.

"I think they are trying to scare people out of this street because they want those people's houses for the other members of their families," she said.