Monday, March 13, 2006
Another Break In
On Saturday, we drove up to the country for the first time in about three weeks. Heavy snow meant that we had to leave the car by the neighbours house 400 metres away and struggle up the hill with food, water and a fairly heavy child. I went ahead and forged a path through snow that was often above my knees, and headed striaght to our shed to collect the sled for Oliver to ride on. As I approached it I noticed that the door did not look right. With a sinking heart, I looked to the right and saw that the kitchen window was broken. The sled was gone, presumably to carry away the thieves' loot, so I went to take over carrying Oliver up the hill while Rita called the police.
A policeman turned up about twenty minutes later, had a good look around and started filling out a variety of forms. This was the fourth time we have called the police to the house over the last two years, and it was far and away the least unpleasant of the visits. Unlike his predecessors, this policeman did not say, or even imply, that we should expect nothing else when we do not live in the house or invest in noise polluting burglar alarms. Nor did he suggest that we were wasting his time by calling him out for a few tools, a sled and two petrol cans with twenty litres of last year's fuel. Instead he was very polite, very thorough (what is the make and value of your claw hammer, sir?), and seemed to take the theft seriously. He left with a newspaper wrapped package containing a note written by the thieves and the pen they had used, for analysis, and left us feeling that perhaps it was not our fault, after all. Unfortunately, his last words were that he would pass all the details on to our local policeman, who is strongly of the opinion that it is our fault, and who will probably file the papers in the drawer entitled, "stupid city people screwing up my crime figures".
There were a couple of positive points about the day, fortunately. We did not light the fire as there is little point with a wide open window, so Oliver and I played outside in deep white snow, and bright sunshine. As the sun reached its zenith, the snow on the roof of the house started melting and provided a musical reminder that winter will not last for ever. Another week or so and the grass will start showing on the south facing slopes. Three weeks and we will have some flowers out, although there may still be snow in the shaded areas, and then nature will burst into life amazingly quickly. And the other good thing? The thieves have solved the problem of disposing of last years petrol!
A policeman turned up about twenty minutes later, had a good look around and started filling out a variety of forms. This was the fourth time we have called the police to the house over the last two years, and it was far and away the least unpleasant of the visits. Unlike his predecessors, this policeman did not say, or even imply, that we should expect nothing else when we do not live in the house or invest in noise polluting burglar alarms. Nor did he suggest that we were wasting his time by calling him out for a few tools, a sled and two petrol cans with twenty litres of last year's fuel. Instead he was very polite, very thorough (what is the make and value of your claw hammer, sir?), and seemed to take the theft seriously. He left with a newspaper wrapped package containing a note written by the thieves and the pen they had used, for analysis, and left us feeling that perhaps it was not our fault, after all. Unfortunately, his last words were that he would pass all the details on to our local policeman, who is strongly of the opinion that it is our fault, and who will probably file the papers in the drawer entitled, "stupid city people screwing up my crime figures".
There were a couple of positive points about the day, fortunately. We did not light the fire as there is little point with a wide open window, so Oliver and I played outside in deep white snow, and bright sunshine. As the sun reached its zenith, the snow on the roof of the house started melting and provided a musical reminder that winter will not last for ever. Another week or so and the grass will start showing on the south facing slopes. Three weeks and we will have some flowers out, although there may still be snow in the shaded areas, and then nature will burst into life amazingly quickly. And the other good thing? The thieves have solved the problem of disposing of last years petrol!
