Another Cautionary Tale
Ah, the heat, the enervating heat that just grinds all energy into nothingness. We become walking sopping messes. Of course there's always the sensible option of sitting in the shade, making the most of errant breezes, sipping cool drinks and just not moving too much. Since we're not of the sensible bent particularly, we continue to go about doing things we normally would, like gardening, cleaning up, working on new projects in the out-of-doors.
Some people are just indefatigably absurd. That's us. And, of course, there's the daily ravine walk too, wouldn't want to miss that. We didn't. And aren't any the worse for that. And went right back to previous pursuits once the perambulation through the newly-arid ravine was completed. On the way there, walking up the street toward the trail head, as it were, we stopped awhile to talk with some neighbours. Who were sensibly sitting in the shade, relaxing, absorbing cool drinks.
Who just happen to own the house at the very corner of the street where ingress to the ravine is located. And who, they explained grimly, experienced a break-in a mere three weeks earlier. They were at work, and their teen-age son had just returned from being out somewhere, at 3:30 in the afternoon. He heard something odd upstairs (their little dog which is generally around was elsewhere with their daughter) and went to investigate.
What he discovered was a wide-open bedroom window, recently vacated by someone who had been gathering objects in that room. When he peered out the window he was able to see two fleeing figures, melting into the ravine contiguous with their backyard. And lying just below the window was a backpack with a hoodie lying over it. Inside the abandoned backpack items that he recognized, including his i-pod.
Not much had been taken. The time of his return had been serendipitous. Doubly so; had he ventured to the second floor a little more speedily and confronted the theft in process, he might have been threatened by a knife. As it was, the thieves hadn't had the opportunity to venture down to the first level to scope things out there. Those few items they had obviously stuffed into the backpack they made away with were relatively worthless.
But, our neighbour said, they won't be leaving their upstairs windows open any more in their absence. How on earth would they have managed to get to the second story, we asked disbelievingly. Hard to imagine, but evidently they assembled all the lawn furniture, leaned it in a pile against the house and crawled up to the lower roof, making their way into the window there. Police investigating the break-in found several useful fingerprints; one on a mirror, the second on the abandoned i-pod.
The good part of the story? Well, the thief got caught doing the same thing elsewhere. He was taken into police custody and charged. He is too young for his name to be released, under the Criminal Youth Act. He is from the area. There have been an increasing number of thefts, break-ins and assaults on homes and businesses in the area. Young people, thugs, have used knives to intimidate people when they haven't had handguns.
We'll be shutting our upstairs windows too, in our absences from home, henceforth. Pity, that. You know, the heat and all.
Some people are just indefatigably absurd. That's us. And, of course, there's the daily ravine walk too, wouldn't want to miss that. We didn't. And aren't any the worse for that. And went right back to previous pursuits once the perambulation through the newly-arid ravine was completed. On the way there, walking up the street toward the trail head, as it were, we stopped awhile to talk with some neighbours. Who were sensibly sitting in the shade, relaxing, absorbing cool drinks.
Who just happen to own the house at the very corner of the street where ingress to the ravine is located. And who, they explained grimly, experienced a break-in a mere three weeks earlier. They were at work, and their teen-age son had just returned from being out somewhere, at 3:30 in the afternoon. He heard something odd upstairs (their little dog which is generally around was elsewhere with their daughter) and went to investigate.
What he discovered was a wide-open bedroom window, recently vacated by someone who had been gathering objects in that room. When he peered out the window he was able to see two fleeing figures, melting into the ravine contiguous with their backyard. And lying just below the window was a backpack with a hoodie lying over it. Inside the abandoned backpack items that he recognized, including his i-pod.
Not much had been taken. The time of his return had been serendipitous. Doubly so; had he ventured to the second floor a little more speedily and confronted the theft in process, he might have been threatened by a knife. As it was, the thieves hadn't had the opportunity to venture down to the first level to scope things out there. Those few items they had obviously stuffed into the backpack they made away with were relatively worthless.
But, our neighbour said, they won't be leaving their upstairs windows open any more in their absence. How on earth would they have managed to get to the second story, we asked disbelievingly. Hard to imagine, but evidently they assembled all the lawn furniture, leaned it in a pile against the house and crawled up to the lower roof, making their way into the window there. Police investigating the break-in found several useful fingerprints; one on a mirror, the second on the abandoned i-pod.
The good part of the story? Well, the thief got caught doing the same thing elsewhere. He was taken into police custody and charged. He is too young for his name to be released, under the Criminal Youth Act. He is from the area. There have been an increasing number of thefts, break-ins and assaults on homes and businesses in the area. Young people, thugs, have used knives to intimidate people when they haven't had handguns.
We'll be shutting our upstairs windows too, in our absences from home, henceforth. Pity, that. You know, the heat and all.
posted by Pieface @ 1:41 PM
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