I'm inclined to agree with you both regarding the hour they chose to do their good deed.
The deed itself I am not questioning, just the time.....and of course the over-reaction of the neighbor.
Well, on a thread yesterday I took into consideration the time this happened and some other aspects of their story and pronounced myself disbelievig of their tale and have been hounded ever since.
Such is life.
Hmmm, as a resident of Colorado, we have the infamous 'make my day' law. We have had someone killed for banging on a screendoor in the middle of the night.
I firmly feel that the intentions were good, the neighbor is a witch, but the girls should have been reprimanded and forced to pay any associated costs (except for the medical bills).
More than that though, many people feel 10:30 is very late (i.e the rule of never calling past 9:00). In Colorado, it can get you shot so the girls should at least learn a lesson from what they did.
If you bang on my door in rural Colorado at 10:30 at night and then run, I would have called the sheriff as well. I wouldn't have sued or reacted as ugly as this lady but it is way outside the bounds of normal. Good intentions, poor choice of application.
We are armed to the teeth as well so it is just a very unwise thing to do.