Last Monday I stepped out of the house at 9:48am. I'm that sure about it because I was expecting my plumber to show soon after 10, but I needed to run to the hardware store for a floodlight bulb. No problem I said to myself.
Went to Stanly's hardware, then stopped for a coffee to go at the Set Table. Back at 10:30.
My front door has two locks. I always bolt the top bolt-lock if I'm going anywhere, and the bottom knob-lock usually gets the key too. When I got back I noticed that only the handle was locked. That didn't seem right, but I gave myself the benefit of the mistake and walked back to the kitchen to get some maple syrup for the coffee.
I noticed on the kitchen floor two or three pieces of mud and a leaf from the tread of a shoe. If you saw the house right now you might have wondered how I could distinguish one piece of dirt from another, but these seemed out of place. I looked at my soles, recognized I had been digging sewer pipe out in the basement and assumed it was from me.
Walking up to the cluttered kitchen counter I set my coffee down then looked right to see my kitchen window open.
Panic!
I knew that wasn't right. It's 30 degrees outside and I never open that window. First reaction was to run to the front room to see if my new mountain bike was there. I had brought it home from the shop the night before, freshly polished, tuned and ready to ride.
Gone!
A quick look around revealed blank holes where my compressor, nail gun and other power tools had been. I ran upstairs to my bed room to find a big hole in the plastic door, and inside was one less Laptop, camera and printer. Still left down stairs was my cross bike with the new PowerTap wheel in it. Unlocked.
Ran to the back yard, realized they took to much stuff to go out the back. Went to the front, asked the guys working on the street if they saw anything. "nope" with heads shaking. Called 911.
Talked to neighbor, Leon. He says he saw a white work truck pull up onto the curb 5 min after I left, but assumed them to be some of the people working on my house. His sone even said hi to one of the guys. Their descriptions didn't match any of my workers. So I waited for the police.
tbc
