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So I stopped a theft tonight...
May. 25th, 2009 11:29 pmI was hanging out on the 2nd floor porch with some people at the memorial day party my SO's household was having. We'd been forced inside by the dark and bugs, and I was waiting for the strawberry shortcake my sweetie was making to be ready. I happened to glance down at the side street and saw some people crossing the street with what looked a hell of a lot like the little solar LED garden lights that are supposed to be lining my friend's flower gardens.
I yelled something to the effect of "I think someone is stealing your garden lights!" and dashed for the back stairs. When I cleared the back door I looked left, and saw the lights were still in the side garden, but a few step forward and the front garden was dark.
I looked up the street and could see some people with said lights the better part of a block away. I turned to my SO's husband, who'd just cleared the back door and shouted for him to get in the car, and dug my keys out.
I leapt into Emily and cranked the engine. Being as she was cold, she struggled a bit to catch, then roared to life. I dropped her in gear and floored the gas. The still cold engine bogged and nearly stalled. I muttered "Not now Em." let of the gas and floored it again. She pulled away from the curb, I glanced left to make sure no one was coming and cut a sharp right onto the street they were walking down.
By the time we caught up to them they were to the next intersection, and walking through a front yard to go down that side street. I yanked the wheel over and skidded up the driveway, stopping with the headlights pointed at them, and we both jumped out of the car.
In front of us were two young(late-teens to early-twenties) girls, one on her cell phone and the other pushing a baby stroller, with the lights still glowing in the bottom basket of the stroller. A conversation approximately like this ensued as we stormed up to them:
SO's Husband: (angry)"Can I have my lights back?"
Girl w/ stroller: (haughty) "Take them."
SO'sH: (angry, while pulling the lights out of the stroller basket) "Why did you take them?"
Girl: "I thought they were pretty."
Me: (angry) "So you thought you could just take someone else's things because they were pretty? So if I liked her cell phone (gesturing to the other girl), I can just take it from her then? Or this stroller, it's kinda nice, I can just grab that then?"
Girl: "You have a point."
SO'sH: (having not heard her clearly) "You think this is ok to do?"
Girl: "I said you have a point, with what he said about the phone and stuff."
Me: "Why should we have to pay to replace something you stole because you thought it was pretty? The sell these at WalMart, go buy yourself some."
And with that we got back in Emily and drove off.
---
Both right afterwards while talking on the drive back to the house, and in the time since then that I've had to think about it two things in particular keep getting to me.
One, when the girl said "You have a point" in response to my suggesting we take their stuff like they took the lights, her tone of voice seemed to indicate it was the first time she'd ever connected her taking something with what it would be like for someone to take something from her. It seemed like she only then was making the connection that other people owned and valued stuff like she owned and valued stuff, such that it might matter to them that it was gone.
Two, she put the stolen lights in her kid's baby carriage. I never saw the front of the carriage, so I don't know if there was actually a kid in it, but the full bottles and other things in the basket strongly indicated such. But either way, she was so casual about the whole thing that she was willing to use her kid's stroller to facilitate the theft.
While I will freely admit the adrenaline and "thrill of the chase" made it almost fun, the whole thing leaves me feeling a bit depressed. While hopefully the conversation (and the fact two good sized guys in a big car chased them down and drove up on a lawn to catch up to them over some lights) might change those girls' attitudes, I don't have high hopes of the lesson sticking. And now my SO's household has to either go without the lights, or spend time/money/energy figuring out how to secure them so the next person can't walk off with them.
Sometimes I hate humans.
---
Amusing (to me anyway) sidenote. Apparently another member of the household only heard me yell "...SOMEONE IS STEALING..." and missed the rest as I ran outside, and moments later heard a car door slam and the distinctive sound of Emily's starter and thought my car was being stolen. A couple people said they had never seen him run so fast ever.
I yelled something to the effect of "I think someone is stealing your garden lights!" and dashed for the back stairs. When I cleared the back door I looked left, and saw the lights were still in the side garden, but a few step forward and the front garden was dark.
I looked up the street and could see some people with said lights the better part of a block away. I turned to my SO's husband, who'd just cleared the back door and shouted for him to get in the car, and dug my keys out.
I leapt into Emily and cranked the engine. Being as she was cold, she struggled a bit to catch, then roared to life. I dropped her in gear and floored the gas. The still cold engine bogged and nearly stalled. I muttered "Not now Em." let of the gas and floored it again. She pulled away from the curb, I glanced left to make sure no one was coming and cut a sharp right onto the street they were walking down.
By the time we caught up to them they were to the next intersection, and walking through a front yard to go down that side street. I yanked the wheel over and skidded up the driveway, stopping with the headlights pointed at them, and we both jumped out of the car.
In front of us were two young(late-teens to early-twenties) girls, one on her cell phone and the other pushing a baby stroller, with the lights still glowing in the bottom basket of the stroller. A conversation approximately like this ensued as we stormed up to them:
SO's Husband: (angry)"Can I have my lights back?"
Girl w/ stroller: (haughty) "Take them."
SO'sH: (angry, while pulling the lights out of the stroller basket) "Why did you take them?"
Girl: "I thought they were pretty."
Me: (angry) "So you thought you could just take someone else's things because they were pretty? So if I liked her cell phone (gesturing to the other girl), I can just take it from her then? Or this stroller, it's kinda nice, I can just grab that then?"
Girl: "You have a point."
SO'sH: (having not heard her clearly) "You think this is ok to do?"
Girl: "I said you have a point, with what he said about the phone and stuff."
Me: "Why should we have to pay to replace something you stole because you thought it was pretty? The sell these at WalMart, go buy yourself some."
And with that we got back in Emily and drove off.
---
Both right afterwards while talking on the drive back to the house, and in the time since then that I've had to think about it two things in particular keep getting to me.
One, when the girl said "You have a point" in response to my suggesting we take their stuff like they took the lights, her tone of voice seemed to indicate it was the first time she'd ever connected her taking something with what it would be like for someone to take something from her. It seemed like she only then was making the connection that other people owned and valued stuff like she owned and valued stuff, such that it might matter to them that it was gone.
Two, she put the stolen lights in her kid's baby carriage. I never saw the front of the carriage, so I don't know if there was actually a kid in it, but the full bottles and other things in the basket strongly indicated such. But either way, she was so casual about the whole thing that she was willing to use her kid's stroller to facilitate the theft.
While I will freely admit the adrenaline and "thrill of the chase" made it almost fun, the whole thing leaves me feeling a bit depressed. While hopefully the conversation (and the fact two good sized guys in a big car chased them down and drove up on a lawn to catch up to them over some lights) might change those girls' attitudes, I don't have high hopes of the lesson sticking. And now my SO's household has to either go without the lights, or spend time/money/energy figuring out how to secure them so the next person can't walk off with them.
Sometimes I hate humans.
---
Amusing (to me anyway) sidenote. Apparently another member of the household only heard me yell "...SOMEONE IS STEALING..." and missed the rest as I ran outside, and moments later heard a car door slam and the distinctive sound of Emily's starter and thought my car was being stolen. A couple people said they had never seen him run so fast ever.
