Would you steal this car??

Last week, someone tried to do just that, and we had a front row seat.

First, a little background: The house behind the car is a rental directly across the street from us. Last year, there was a guy living there who we referred to as Creepy Guy. We called him that because he appeared to not have job or a car, and never seemed to sleep. He was always home, usually hanging around outside and there were lights on all the time. He also has a habit of playing his stereo loud enough in the summer that we had to close our doors and windows to hear our TV. In the winter, his driveway and sidewalks were cleared by 7am, even though he seemingly had nowhere to go. For a while there was a woman living there, who we called Mrs. Creepy Guy, but we didn't see her much, and have no idea who she actually was.

The cops showed up to Creepy Guy's house on more than one occasion while he was living there, but we never knew why (no we never called them for the loud music, though we were tempted). When he left suddenly this past summer, a neighbor told us that he had a drug problem and had been stealing people's mail, presumably for credit card applications, etc. Needless to say, I put a fraud alert on my accounts just to be safe.

Back to last week. I was in the kitchen Sunday afternoon and noticed the gate across the street was open. I thought that was strange, since the house is currently vacant. Then I noticed a guy in a hooded coat standing outside the house to left in the picture (which is where the car belongs). That was even stranger, because it was *really* cold last weekend. But the guy who lives there has a shop in his garage, and it's not completely uncommon to have people over there. And the hooded guy kept looking in the front window, almost like he was waiting for someone inside.

A few minutes later, John said "Creepy Guy moved out, why are the cops over there?" As I came to the front window, the red car was backing out of the driveway and there was a police car in front of the house across the street. When the 2nd and 3rd police cars pulled up, the red car stopped and pulled forward again. The officers pulled the guy with the hood out of the car, frisked and handcuffed him and put in the back of a cruiser. The people who own the car were apparently home the whole time, because they were outside while the thief was being 'cuffed. We could be wrong, but it looked an awful lot like Creepy Guy. I'm glad we were never too chummy with Creepy Guy, and that we keep our cars in the garage!

That was last week's excitement. Now back to our regularly scheduled quilt blocks. :)