Keep Your Eyes Open.

Over the last months there has been a significant increase in in burglary around the area where I live. The burglars will come not only at dusk or at night, when the lights are off, but also in broad daylight. In my area, very often husbands as well as wives go to work, so at noon there is hardly anybody at home.

The situation got so bad that the police of my district held an information session for the people around, to give advice on how to prevent your place to be mugged.

(Which is, in the end, probably not that useful, considering that it will only mean that the burglars will mug your neighbours then, not you.)

Our neighbour from across the road, an elderly lady who has an apartment in town and only comes by to take care of her plants for most of the time, had specifically informed us about where the houses had been mugged. She also told us that several of the people around had seen a man on a bycicle, driving along the street, and apparently randomly ringing bells. When he got aware of people watching him, he would leave very quickly.

Suspicious, eh?

Yesterday, my parents came back from their dancing class and guess what?

Right across the street, at the elderly neighbour's front door, there was a young man.

Kneeling down and fumbling around the lock. There was also a woman with a dog. When they saw my parents, the woman proceeded to a car and got in. My mother stared at the man with a "I have seen you and I know what you are doing!" look and stood there and waited.

He got away from the door and went to the car.

He sat in.

My mother still stood there and stared at them.

They also waited for some more time.

Then they drove away.

My mother had memorized the licence plate and called the police to inform them about what she had witnessed.

Then she called our neighbour.

Mom: ".....and then there was a young man at your lock, and"

Neighbour "- ah yes."

M: "...Yes???"

N:"Yes, that was XX, a whatevereverclosefar nephew of mine. He had borrowed my lawnmower."

M:"A young man? And there was also a woman with a dog?"

N"Oh yes, that's Katie. Yes, they probably just brought the lawnmower back."

M" But he was kneeling at that lock forever, it looked as if he wanted to break it."

N"Yeah, the lock is old and stiff. It's really hard to open if you are not used to it."

M"OMFG. I just called the police."

N"Yeah, and once back then when..."

M"I don't want to interrupt you, but I should call the police right now before he gets arrested."

So my mom called the police once more and the cop was really nice and it was no problem at all, and my mom had definitely done the right thing.

Of course, my parents both were extremely ashamed now. What they did was right and it's better to inform the police than to do nothing and wait for the next burglar. But still, false alarm is always an embarassing thing.

While I understood how my parents felt, I had actually another feeling rising up in me: Anger.

Anger at this retarded idiot.

That stupid dumbass of a nephew.

What in the world was wrong with him?

It is dark as hell and he is at a place that is not his. He is kneeling at the locker and fingering around as if he does NOT have a key.

The neighbours are coming and entering their place. But the neighbour woman stands there and stares at him.

For a long time.

So while she does not know who he is, he does clearly see who she is: A neighbour who cannot place him and what he does there.

I know that at first, your reaction would probably be like "oh please, leave me alone, woman! I am not stealing anything."

But then, don't you start to understand what is going on?

Don't you understand that she apparently thinks that you are a criminal?

What in the world is so hard in going over the 3 meters and saying "Ahm... excuse me.... I have the feeling that you think I am a burglar or something, so I'd like to inform you that I'm Mrs. B's nephew and she gave me the keys."

That is what I would have done.

I would probably even have offered to show my id card or something.

If that woman had only been there for a few seconds, staring at me, I would not have done it. But the whole thing took several minutes, in which I would have developed an understanding of the situation as well as a way to solve the problem, so was his brain too slow or what?

Also, I was angry at our old neighbour.

After telling us about the burglars around our street, and warning us, why didn't she also add the information that her nephew might come by? After all, my parents had promised her to keep an eye open if they'd see something suspicious, so why didn't she use that chance to tell my parents about that?

I mean, it could also have been that that guy had strangled her and then emptied the house, how should we know?

She is a weak elderly lady!

So that's what you get for demonstrating civil courage in real life.