my fence is already broken.

That didn't last long.  I discovered the broken gate on Sunday afternoon, when I was taking some garbage out to the bins.  I saw that it was hanging open, which was odd.  Then I saw that it was also tilted wrongly.  The south side of the gate was torn entirely from the post, with the upper side also torn out but barely hanging in place.

I looked below it for tire tracks, assuming a vehicle did it.  But there were no vehicle tracks in the snow.

There were, however, some human tracks in the snow.  When I followed them backwards to their origin, they went alongside my house (not near my house's back door) toward the front sidewalk cutting the corner on the south side of the yard.

I don't yet have a fence up front.  I'm guessing that somebody walked through my yard as a shortcut, got annoyed at the fence in back, then took their frustration out on my gate (which was only shut, not locked).  It appears that there were 2 sets of tracks from the sidewalk to the alley.

Lessons learned:

1. Put up fencing, both front and back.
2. Lock, don't just shut, the gates.
3. Inspect the property daily for any changes.

About halfway along those tracks, there was a loose Pringles can.  When I called the non-emergency number at the local precinct, they said they probably couldn't get any fingerprints from it.  So I guess I'll never know who did it.  This morning there was fresh snow, covering all of the previous tracks.

There's no point in filing an insurance claim, since I'd have to pay my deductible first, and there's no point going through that headache with only 3 weeks left in the year.

I wouldn't be surprised if this aggressiveness was connected with the new neighbors to the south of me.  It was a few nights ago that I opened my back door to watch the hubbub coming from their backyard.  A loud group of young adults left their property and went very very slowly down my alley.  About 15 minutes later there was loud talking amongst a group at their front yard too.

I've emailed the fence company to ask their suggestions for easy ways to repair the damage.  Someone else suggested maybe drilling through the whole post with a bolt then securing with washers and nuts on the other side.  I may end up having to replace the gate and post altogether, though.  For now, I picked up the gate and brought it indoors.

Next spring, I'll have to fix this mess.  And I definitely need to get the remaining sections into the ground at the front of the house.