Early Tuesday morning, around 1:40 a.m., Ben woke up for a feeding. He sleeps in a bassinet next to our bed and I pick him up and take him out to our den to feed him. As I was walking to the den, in my super sleepy state, I passed through our entry way and something caught my eye...in the furthest window of our formal living/dinning room (closest to the drive way) I thought I saw something that looked like a flash light. For whatever reason, I went to our front door instead of the window itself and I looked out. Immediately upon looking out the half stain glass, half clear glass window, I saw lightening, a storm was heading our way. So I quickly disregarded my original thought of a flash light and went about feeding Ben.
Around 2:00 a.m. I headed to Ben's room to change his diaper. As I placed him on his changing table I heard tires squealing and a loud exhaust speeding away. It sounded really close, so I strapped Ben in and ran, once again, to the front door. I saw nothing...again. So a shrugged and went back to baby Ben, who by the way, was happily waiting for me to return...such a sweet baby.
About 2:08 a.m. I am back on the couch in the den, about to go in for round 2 of the feeding and I look up to see very, very bright lights going slowly across the wall in front of me...Now I thought, "Okay, what in the world is going on out there!" There was just too much activity for our quite little street.
So I go to the window this time, and I see a cop car across the street. I watched him get out and of course I thought, "What are our neighbors up to this time?"...But no, the cop started walking across the street...TO OUR HOUSE! I started to panic, but just as crazy thoughts were about to start going crazy, I see his flash light beam go right to Michael's truck and I immediately realize...THERE ARE NO TIRES ON HIS TRUCK! Yes, that's right, the truck is still there, but it had no tires! (the very bright light, if you haven't already guessed, was the police spot light going across our house)
I kind of froze a little bit and in that time, the cop rang the door bell. I answered the door, asked him to wait, and yes, with Ben still in my arms, I ran to our bedroom. Michael had just woken from the door bell and was coming down the hallway towards me. I quickly just blurted, "I'm sorry...your tires were stolen, there is a cop at the door."
Michael made me and Ben stay inside while he talked with the police. (that was really hard for me, so I didn't :) I saw Michael open the garage, so I went to the garage to see what he was doing. As I walked out, I see him rolling a tire towards me...now I'm really confused! So, Michael tells me that the police told him that a passer by caught the robbers in the act, the robbers dropped what they were doing and fled the scene. The passer by called 911 and reported the vehicle (but the plates didn't match the car). So as Michael was outside talking with the police, he looked over and saw a pile of tires...3 of them actually! By the way, the passer by now totally makes sense with the sounds I heard...squealing tires...etc.
Michael files a police report, rolls the 3 tires in the garage, locks up and checks it 3 times and heads to bed. I finished feeding Ben, checked to make sure everything was locked again too and proceeded to lay in bed freaked out for the next 2.5 hours...until Ben woke up for his next feeding.
Morning finally came and Michael called into work so he could stay home and sort the whole thing out. He got the 3 tires back on and then put on the spare. I called and filed a claim with our insurance and then I called the dealership and located the factory wheels and tires to make sure he wouldn't have mixed matched wheels on the truck. You see this whole time, Michael and I were like, why did they steal 3 year old tires? What could they possibly be worth? Well we found out...total bill to replace 1 tire, 1 wheel, 4 lug nut locks, 4 new chevy logo thingy that goes over the lug nuts and then installation and some other things was just short of $1,400!!!??!!??! No wonder they stole it! Why in the world is it so expensive, especially for factory wheels and tires! Come on now!
By 3:00 pm Michael was back in business with his new tire. Later that afternoon a young guy, probably mid 20's stopped by and Michael went to talk with him. Turns out, he was the one who stopped the robbers! He said he lives a couple blocks down and was heading home around 2 am. He saw 2 guys loading a tire in their trunk and just figured that they were having car trouble. But as he passed our house he noticed that Michael's truck was on blocks! He said he instinctively slammed on his breaks and threw it in reverse! The two robbers jumped in their car and took off! The young neighbor followed them for a while, called 911 and turned in their info! WOW, what a brave kid! I don't know if I would do the same! But, I am thankful for what he did. I am glad that those thugs aren't making a big profit off of us, just a little one. :(
While all this was going on, we had recieved word that Michael's 98 year grandmother, Olga had fallen and broke her arm. At the same time, Amy was taking Scarlet to the emergency room for a really, really bad infection. My focus then shifted to the people we love...tires can be replaced, but the people we love can't. Scarlet is doing much better after several strong antibiotics, but Olga is still in the hospital and not doing that good. Please keep her in your prayers.
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| Note: on the bottom left of this photo, the missing pavers are whats holding up the truck. The nerve! |
