Yesterday I was talking to our neighbour, a young single woman who moved in last spring, and she was quite concerned. It seems that the previous night, someone had pulled the screen off her back window in an attempt to gain entry into the house. She was at home at the time, and didn't hear anything, but came out in the morning to find the following mysterious clues:
1) Bend window screen
2) Cigarette butt on the front walk, piece of torn 5 dollar bill
3) A dropped passport, with another piece of a (different) five dollar bill
Now, the passport does take the Inspector Poirot mystery out of the equation in one sense. I mean, call the police and give the name. But the twist was that it belonged to the 20-something son of the previous owners, a very nice couple in their early 60s who had moved to a condo nearby. Why would their son Chris be coming back to break into his old house in the night? Or had the passport been there over the course of the year and uncovered by wind or something? There's no question he's a chronic underachiever (to put it charitably, as like many vaguely artistic potheads he's quite a nice guy), but he sure didn't strike me as a B&E type unless he'd being trying something new. I told my neighbour I knew who it was, and would follow up with his mother Wendy by email.
Wendy's initial response was disbelief, but quickly updated to "Uh oh, yup it was him." His story was that he had gone out with friends, had gotten caught up in some sort of hard core drinking and passed out. He woke up confused and wandered back to where he used to live and tried to get in. He was terribly embarrassed, Wendy and Chris's father David were appalled, and called my neighbour to come over and set things right.
Anyway, my neighbour was nice about it (although she said anything like that again, and the cops will be there pronto), and I assume that Chris will pay for a new screen.
It left me thinking that please God don't ever let me have to accompany my 28 year-old son to someone's house to apologize for behaviour like this, and never allow me to be so naive to believe that it was just alcohol that led to behaviour like this. Please.
1) Bend window screen
2) Cigarette butt on the front walk, piece of torn 5 dollar bill
3) A dropped passport, with another piece of a (different) five dollar bill
Now, the passport does take the Inspector Poirot mystery out of the equation in one sense. I mean, call the police and give the name. But the twist was that it belonged to the 20-something son of the previous owners, a very nice couple in their early 60s who had moved to a condo nearby. Why would their son Chris be coming back to break into his old house in the night? Or had the passport been there over the course of the year and uncovered by wind or something? There's no question he's a chronic underachiever (to put it charitably, as like many vaguely artistic potheads he's quite a nice guy), but he sure didn't strike me as a B&E type unless he'd being trying something new. I told my neighbour I knew who it was, and would follow up with his mother Wendy by email.
Wendy's initial response was disbelief, but quickly updated to "Uh oh, yup it was him." His story was that he had gone out with friends, had gotten caught up in some sort of hard core drinking and passed out. He woke up confused and wandered back to where he used to live and tried to get in. He was terribly embarrassed, Wendy and Chris's father David were appalled, and called my neighbour to come over and set things right.
Anyway, my neighbour was nice about it (although she said anything like that again, and the cops will be there pronto), and I assume that Chris will pay for a new screen.
It left me thinking that please God don't ever let me have to accompany my 28 year-old son to someone's house to apologize for behaviour like this, and never allow me to be so naive to believe that it was just alcohol that led to behaviour like this. Please.
Oh man, that's just too much. I am reminded, yet again, what a favour i did myself by never getting drunk.
I can't wait to have to deal with this when my kids are older... Hopefully, not at 28 however!