The Office View

I have been working on unpacking our office.  It has been a total mess since we moved in last October.  I didn't want to hit the one year mark without having it set up.  Why buy a house with an office if you're going to avoid it because the mess stresses you out?

So I have made it a bit of a "project" this week.  Nap times have been spent moving stuff around, unpacking boxes, and generally trying to create some sense of order.  I have been making progress and it feels good.

One benefit of being in the office is that I can see outside the front of our house.  The other day I was at the desk when I saw a group of about 7 sketchy looking teenagers (I'm 35, so I can say that now) walking slowly down the street and staring into peoples homes and looking in car windows.  It was broad daylight and they were obviously looking for trouble.  I immediately went to shut my shade as I didn't want them coming up to ring the doorbell and waking the kids up (the babe has been home from school since Wednesday until the "camp" version begins on Monday).

A few of them proceeded to casually walk onto my neighbors lawn.  She is a  Stay-at-Home Mama like me and tends to keep her front door open.  My heart started racing as I watched one of them pick up a scooter sitting on the lawn and walk off to the street with it.  The gang kept moving and the scooter stealer scooted away with them. 

I had a zillion thoughts racing through my mind.  Before I could think too much about it I ran out to the street and started yelling at them, "Hey, that's not your scooter!  Bring that back here!"   I knew that if I didn't try and get the scooter back, I would beat myself up about it for weeks to come.  To my surprise, the little thief stopped and headed back. 

I glared at him and took the scooter.  "That belongs to a 7 year old kid.  How do you think he's going to feel when he realizes someone stole it?"  I was so pumped up at this point I don't even remember what he said, or if he said anything at all.

There has been an "uptick" in crime in my neighborhood lately and we have been asked to report suspicious activity.  There was recently an armed car jacking at a nearby intersection, there have been a lot of cars being broken into, and some assaults at near by bus stops.  After staring at the "gang" in disbelief, I ran inside the house and called 911.  I have never reported suspicious activity in my life, but I knew I had to make the call.  I gave the operator the info and she told me they would send someone out. 

When I later went to tell my neighbor what had happened, she mentioned she had seen a police cruiser driving by quickly and had wondered what was up.  I have never seen a police car on our street, so was bummed I missed seeing the one police car I had been been involved in arranging for.

Anyway, I think I did the right thing, although when my husband returned from his business trip later that night, he asked if perhaps I should have let them go and just called 911.  This thought had never occurred to me.  I am a Mom and now I am a home owner and I don't want people to think they can come into our neighborhood and take things that don't belong to them.  Needless to say I was glad we had an alarm system installed when we moved in.  I don't know what retribution I could expect for interfering with an attempted scooter robbery, and I don't want to find out (I say that in jest, sort of).