Theft

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

Have you ever been the victim of theft?  Large or small?  Of course, when you are the victim, even a “small” theft feels large, doesn’t it?

For instance, when we were in Wiesbaden, Germany (1967-1970), I received a letter from my mother, telling me that, while she was away from the house during a weekend retreat, someone had broken into her house and robbed her.

Our house in 1946, my brother, Bill, and me

My first reaction was absolute FEAR – for her.  My dad had died some time before, and she was a woman living alone in the house I grew up in.  But then that fear subsided – since I was so far away and there was nothing I could do about it.  (Nothing of what was stolen was ever recovered)  They took a shotgun that was my dad’s and was supposed to be given to my brother.  They riffled through her jewelry and only took her diamond earrings.  Of all things, they took the old striking wall clock off the wall in the hallway.  There was nothing of real value in that clock.

1952 – the family together – the wall clock behind Bill

After I got over the fear, my next response – and still is to this day – was anger.  NO ONE – and I repeat that – NO ONE has the right to go into my house and take what is not theirs!!  What we had worked for all our lives up to that point.  I was furious!  Again, I’ve tried to not let it rule my life, as there is and was nothing I could about it.

I think that, not only does it anger me that someone went into mom’s house, but the thought of “someone” unknown to me would riffle through my things – touch my things – just gives me the creeps.  

And that brings to mind a memory I have of our early days in Albuquerque.  Those were the days when we left our house unlocked. Innocent days.  We came home from church one Sunday and discovered that someone had been in the house.  Anything stolen?  I don’t remember that, just that there were signs that someone had been in there.  We had new neighbors next door.  We couldn’t accuse them of doing it, but it made us aware that we must keep our house locked up.  Innocence lost.

When we lived in Virginia, we attended the church that was in our little community. Across the parking lot from the main building was the parsonage.  At that particular time, our Minister of Music was living in the parsonage.  Fred and I went to the church one morning for something or other. 

Credit Google Search

We noticed that his small pickup truck was parked in the driveway, but that the bed of the truck was missing.  My thought was that he was having some repair work done.  We did whatever we had gone there to do, and in the course of our conversation, I mentioned something about his truck “missing” something.  He looked at me funny, then asked me what I was talking about.  When I told him, he made a bee-line out to his house – and stood there, mouth agape, looking at his truck.  Apparently he hadn’t even noticed the truck as he walked to the church proper that morning. Also apparently, during the night, the thief had cut the fuel line and whatever connections needed to keep the bed attached, and just took the bed off the truck and with him.  License tag and all.

But that’s not the end of the story.  As he was driving down the interstate one day, he actually saw the bed of his truck driving ahead of him – attached to another truck – license tag and all.  Fortunately, he had a cell phone and called the detective in charge of his case and told him about it.  The police were able to stop the thief.  His explanation was that he just needed a new bed for his truck, and knew where he could get one without having to buy it.  Unbelievable.  I think that falls in the category of stupid crook, don’t you?

~~~~~~~~~~More stupid crook stories next time~~~~~~~~~

Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years

Tags: Memories, Thievery