It takes a spot of courage to stand up tall and a bit of derring-do to rise when you fall

Thursday, July 27, 2006

Invasion Of The Guitar Snatchers

So this happened:

The other morning--at 7:30 in the morning, mind you (i.e. it's light out, people are up and about), my in-laws were lying abed sleeping. They live in a fairly small town in a cozy respectable safe neighborhood. So they're sleeping in bed but for some reason my mother-in-law opens her eyes. Doesn't stretch real big, roll over, yawn loudly....but just opens her eyes. And there in the doorway of her bedroom she sees a big shadow of a person. Just then the shadow takes the really nice guitar belonging to my father-in-law which is propped in the corner and then takes off out of the room. She ponders why her husband would be taking his guitar somewhere right at that moment when she realizes that he's actually sleeping next to her. Hmmm. This doesn't bode well.

Anyway, she tells Pops, he pops out of bed and decides he should trail the guy. (The consensus has been that this was a really dumb idea. Sorry, Pops.) He discovers that the guy broke their back gate. Their house is backed up to a lovely creek which has a trail beside it. People regularly walk, run, ride their bikes along this trail. Well, guitar-snatcher clearly came this route, broke the lock on their gate and then invited himself inside their house. Because it's a small town and oh-so-safe, they don't always lock their doors---at least not the back slider, etc. It's been so hot and seemed reasonable to leave the slider open.

So Pops hops on his bike and takes off down the trail. His aim is just to catch a glimpse of the guy, see where he is, where he's going, call the cops while he has him in view. While he's taking off on his quest, he passes a lady walking who claims that yes, she did just see someone running down the path lugging a guitar. (Hello? Steal a guitar? It's so easy to stuff in your pocket. It's so inconspicuous. NOBODY will notice.)

He never sees the guy, he comes back home after a bit, the lady who saw the guy is gone as well. THEN he calls the cops. Now it seems to me that maybe they shoulda called the cops immediately and then there might've been a better chance of catching said guitar snatcher. Who knows. At any rate, this kind of thing makes a person feel vulnerable. It makes you mad! How dare you come in MY home and take MY stuff. (This happened to us once when I was a kid, though we weren't home at the time, but that's another post). Pops then went out for reinforcement---new locks, some lights in the back, etc.

It was a strange event and they were very lucky. They could've been shot in their beds---it happens, even in a small safe town. I figure the guy came in because there was easy access, maybe assumed no one was home because it was so quiet, looked around quickly for something valuable he could grab, got as far as their bedroom and saw that the house wasn't vacant after all and grabbed the nearest thing. That's my theory.

I hope the guitar gets recovered, though that seems a bit unlikely. More than that, I hope they stay safe and the boogie men stay AWAY.

18 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Locks are good......Use them.....It is the 21st century.

11:29 AM, July 27, 2006

 
Blogger Left Coast Sister said...

I hate that story! Our house is on par with Fort Knox, maybe because we live in a virtual sister city to Compton, but it does make me feel a little better...

3:04 PM, July 27, 2006

 
Blogger Left Coast Sister said...

PS That is a little odd to steal a guitar. Obviously he knew where it was... weird, all around.

3:05 PM, July 27, 2006

 
Blogger Lisa said...

I'm going to forward this post to my friend Emily, who believes I am a total paranoid freak for never leaving my windows open and doors unlocked. "What could possibly happen?" she says. Your post. End of discussion. I would have had a heart attack right there in my bed. No need for a shotgun on guitar pilferers part.

3:20 PM, July 27, 2006

 
Blogger Happy Birthday! said...

Whew, I am sure glad he got on his bike and chased after that guy. I know there was a risk of death and all, but who could live with himself after just letting a shadow steal his guitar? No, wait...

6:02 PM, July 27, 2006

 
Blogger jay are said...

wow...medication gone too. obviously looking for drugs or money for drugs! scary.
Hey!! Maybe that's how some of these new bands start....ya reckon? Steal a guitar and someone's meds and you're good to go!

11:28 PM, July 27, 2006

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

very scary story. could've been so much scarier.

have to admire father-in-law's gumption (even tho, *shaking head* whilst reading this...)

locks and other measures (unfortunately) are necessary in most locales.

8:57 AM, July 28, 2006

 
Blogger Sonia Wetzel Photography said...

ACK! How disconcerting!!! I'm glad they're okay.

9:46 AM, July 28, 2006

 
Blogger Lisa said...

I'm from the same fairly small town (but don't live there anymore), and my brothers and sisters have a habit of leaving their keys IN THEIR CARS in the driveway, because NOTHING would happen to them.........until one of their friends' cars was stolen from our driveway!!!!!

Oh, and in the town where I live now (a little bigger, but still fairly safe), our bicycles were stolen out of our garage at 7pm while my husband was home alone with my daughter!

I hate that we can't just leave anything open anymore, but apparently, it's just not safe!

8:42 AM, July 29, 2006

 
Blogger jay are said...

"concerting". Very clever.

10:43 PM, July 29, 2006

 
Blogger Left Coast Sister said...

Then again, lisa and jay are and jay are's in-laws, you could be so lucky as to live in the Northern California version of Compton where you just don't get gas after it's dark without your kevlar vest on. Eep. Maybe the Guitar Snatcher is just using it to make enough money to buy his own and will give it back shortly. As for the medications, who knows, maybe he had high blood pressure too... can't fault a guy for that. (;

2:10 PM, July 30, 2006

 
Blogger jay are said...

compton sounds like a swell place...maybe I'll check it out sometime---at noon.

9:45 PM, July 30, 2006

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

mamacita: very funny! i'm sure that the "victims" are a very nice, understanding sort...

10:03 AM, July 31, 2006

 
Blogger Lois Lane said...

Holy moses, that could have taken a really horrid turn. I'm glad they are relatively okay.
Lois Lane

10:54 AM, July 31, 2006

 
Blogger unca said...

Oh well, no use "fretting" over a stolen guitar [sorry].

8:28 PM, July 31, 2006

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

And what would Fearless Frank have done should he have caught up with the guitar snatcher? Thrown a shoe at him? (don't mean to make fun of you, Frank.)

10:44 PM, July 31, 2006

 
Blogger jay are said...

chortle, snort..."fret"

4:59 AM, August 01, 2006

 
Blogger Unknown said...

Hope the guitar is returned. I know how I feel if mine disappeared.

"Call 9-1-1
before they have a chance to run"

8:19 PM, August 02, 2006

 

Post a Comment

<< Home