To Catch A Scumbag Part 2

We called the Woodson Terrace police and Captain Mike Thompson was the first to arrive. We brought him in and showed him where our stuff was and showed him the cord hanging out of the closed window. When we did, Kat noticed a bike on the patio of the house next door. That house has been vacant and been for sale for over a year. The bike did not belong there. We had not seen a bike in that yard at any time in the year proceeding. She mentioned it but we all did not think anything of it. A detective arrived and a patrol man and we looked to see if anything else was missing. They made some suggestions of things to look for. “Are you missing any liquor?” Sure enough we were missing several bottles of booze. “How about any loose change you collect?” We had been saving up all of our daily change in a jar all year. I went to where it was kept and it too was missing. I figured it was about $200 in coins.

The cops did their thing; took finger prints, snapped pictures, asked more questions. They gave us the police report number, asked us to call if we realized anything else was missing, and said they would be in touch. They felt confident that after they questioned everyone who had been working in the house, they would have a suspect. When they left we went back outside and noticed the bike that was next door was now gone. That got some wheels clicking. I went next door and saw the back door was open on that house and a suitcase was setting just outside of the door. It was obvious the suitcase was not left behind be the previous owners. It wasn’t wet (it had been raining) and wasn’t weathered at all. I told Kat to call the detective back because someone could be in the house. I did not go in, but stood in the back so I could see if anyone came out. The captain and Detective James “JW” Wethington came back and went in the house with their guns drawn.

Unfortunately, no one was in the house but there was a bike, not the one from the back porch, inside. They came out, opened the suitcase and the liquor from our house was inside! We knew for sure because we had just been given a bottle of homemade lemoncello as a Christmas present from our good friend Marty the day before. We put the bottle in our freezer. So these creeps literally went through everything in our house.

So we hung out around the house for awhile, doing laundry and watching some TV. I have always heard people say that when your house is burglarize, it’s not about the stuff, it’s about feeling violated that people were in YOUR house going through YOUR things. I was now in touch with that emotion. I wanted to spend the night there but Kat was able to talk me into going back to the hotel around 9:00 p.m. We canceled our plans for the night and just stayed in our room watching movies. Kat was asleep before midnight but I could not sleep. I just laid there getting pissed. I was determined that I was going to catch whomever it was that dared to break into my house.

So just before 6:00 a.m. on January 1, New Year’s Day, I couldn’t take it. I got up, left the hotel, and headed to our house. I had a feeling I was going to find something. When I pulled up there was a bike on the side of the house next door! I knew I had them. I thought better of going in the house myself and called 911. The Woodson Terrace police were there quickly and went in, again with guns drawn. I heard I loud slam and I was anticipating them coming out with someone in cuffs. No luck. However, there was a different bike in the house and they took the one that was on the outside. Damn. I thought this would come to a quick end.

So now there is no way I am leaving the house. I told Kat that she could stay at the hotel but I was staying at our house from now on. I called my brother-in-law Tony and asked if he could come over and put up some heavy plastic where the ceiling was missing so we could run the furnace warm enough to stay out the house. By the way, Tony is awesome and if you ever need a handy man in the St Louis are, call him. I also wanted to get the dogs out of the kennel. You can call Brinks or ADT to get a security system; I’ll take my dog Cali over them. She is a German Shepherd/Rottweiler mix and 70 pound of solid muscle. She is very territorial and if she would have been home when someone tried to break in we would have had a different mess to clean up. We have another dog, Harley who is much bigger than Cali and a good barker, but let’s just say she is not very intimidating. She might smack you in the calf with her tail, if she bothers to get up. The kennel was closed so I had to wait until Saturday to get the girls.

So all weekend I sat in the house, half watching TV and half watching the house next door. I had to go back to work Monday but was really apprehensive about leaving the house. I started looking up video surveillance systems on the internet. They are not cheap and not something you can quickly or easily install. So on Sunday, I get the idea that maybe I can do this with a web cam. So I start searching for a way to do time lapse images and I find Handy AVI that looks to do exactly what I want. I wasn’t completely sure it would work so I went to Wal-mart and bought an inexpensive web cam the Microsoft VX-3000. I came home and did a test and it worked well.

To be continued.....