So we were out of town for 3 weeks. We live a pretty quiet residential neighborhood. We've been here 3 years now and know several of our neighbors by name and the rest to wave or say "hi" to in passing. We told the folks across the street and the people down the block that we'd be out of town.

We get back to 105 degree heat which they CLAIM is unusual here (I'm not sure I'm buying that anymore but whatever). It was 6pm on Monday last week when we got back. We had the car in and out a couple times then mostly stayed inside and in the back trying to keep cool. On Tuesday the car was in and out a couple times as well. Just before midnight on Tuesday, I awake to dh yelling and the dog barking. Next thing I know, I'm hushing the dog and talking to a deputy while wearing nothing but a t-shirt and panties (fortunately it was a longish t-shirt but definitely not a night shirt either). Dh is digging out ID and standing in the backyard in his boxers.

Turns out the neighbor across the street got robbed while we were gone. The shed in their backyard was broken into. She's a smoker and goes outside to her backyard to smoke, notices that our lighting is different and calls 9-1-1. They figure that they've got the baddies red handed.

What I don't know until a couple days later is that in addition to the guy I talked to, there were others. I figured he had a partner somewhere, I just didn't see him. No, not just a partner. There were at least 20 local law enforcement mobilized for this operation. They were bringing in the canine units, they had sherrifs and neighboring PD involved (we're unincorporated county area). They woke up neighbors and informed them that they'd be coming through their yards and not to panic. The poor lady on the corner was awake, noticed 2 of them outside her house, saw them standing there talking a long time and figured that they were trying to decide which of them had to tell her that her 19 year old had been in an accident. She ended up outside in her nightgown to find out and was told, "no, everything's fine, just a robbery!"

Sheesh! And the neighbors thought they really traded up when they got us (the previous owners were the local problem children). As bad as they were (they used to burn dirty diapers in their fireplace for pete's sake), they never had the SWAT team at the door!

On the plus side, if we were being robbed, you can't beat those kinds of neighbors! Much better than when I was a child and all my dad's equipment was stolen out of his van while our nosey neighbor watched and said nothing. Her line was "oh, I thought they were friends of yours or something". Uh, unloading our van at midnight without my folks there? Uh huh.

Tess