Burglar or the Wind?

The wind picked up around lunch time today. Weather.com says the wind is gusting from 16 to 29 mph. Whistling through cracks in the house. Blowing trash cans down the street. Creaking our house and rustling trees.

I needed to let the dog out the back yard - she hadn't been out since 5 a.m., so about an hour ago, I walked down to the family room, and unlocked and opened the sliding glass door. As I waited on the porch for her to do her business, I happened to look to the right. Our backyard, where we grew tomatoes and blackberry bushes last Summer, had been violated.

See, we don't have a cover on our window-well to the basement, so we had placed quite a few things in the way to block access. Lattice. Garden box frames. Bags of rock. And two kiddie pools we plan to use for next year's garden, weighted down by more garden box frames.

Someone tried to access our basement by that window-well. It wasn't the wind - too neat. The culprit(s) moved the pools away and laid them against our back fence. The garden boxes were stacked neatly, but someone had gone through our blackberry brambles and ripped part out (is it horrible to hope they got a thorn?). It's obvious someone climbed into our window-well, and once there, realized we have too much stored in that room to get the window open, not to mention make a path through the room to the door.

I guess they gave up.

This had to have happened this afternoon. I worked in the yard a little this morning, and the pools hadn't been moved yet. We have a new neighbor across the street who bought the foreclosed house and has had a work crew there for at least a week. Perhaps they came over? They have been taking water from our faucet (though we can't prove this).

Not going to call the police. They care more about parking and code enforcement than being nice and helpful to homeowners.

We re-stacked everything against the window-well, and further fortified not only that basement window, but all of our other windows. Unbelievable. We never thought someone would try to steal from an obviously poor family, especially since my car stays parked out front, and there are nicer homes, landscaping, and lawn ornaments across and down the street.

Family is more important than possessions. So, be it known, that if an intruder successfully enters our house without our permission, he/she will pay dearly. We are prepared.

Can't be to careful.

Unbelievable.