Chasing Down a Thief

Old toys of the boys currently in use at our church nursery

When William and Dalton were small, Uncle Byron and I decided to buy our first house ever.  You see the first four years that we were in Brazil we lived in a different house every year.  Twice we stayed in the house of some missionary on furlough, once we rented an apartment and once we rented a house.  All the moving and paying rent helped us to make the decision to buy.  In some other post I'll tell you about how we found the house that we bought.

It was a nice house on a street that was one block long.  The street did not go all the way through to any other.  Our house was at the dead-end of the street.  Apparently the street had originally been a sort of private housing community with a guard and gate at the entrance.  When we got the house there was no more guard or gate, it just looked like a normal street.  All the houses were pretty much the same.  There were about 12 houses if I remember correctly.

We knew many of our neighbors by name. Those in the houses right beside us and in front of us were very friendly and helpful to the new Americans on their private street.  Quite a few of the families had been in their homes from the very beginning of the the construction of the little development.

Since it was such a quiet little street sometimes I would open our big gate and let the boys play on the sidewalk and let them ride their little bikes on the street just in front of the house with certain set boundaries.  The other neighbors would always be keeping an eye out for them and most of the time I stayed very close by.  One day William had hauled out quite a few of the little people in the photo you see above and other toys to play in the shade of a big tree outside our gate. (Later that tree fell over after a big rain storm).

As the boys were playing, a couple of junk collectors with a big cart came down our road.  They were asking people to give them things to take to the recyclers to get some cash.  I liked giving things to boys like that because it was much better than just begging for money.  I thought it showed some initiative.  I went in the house and got a few things for them.  One asked for some of the boys' toys.  I said that the toys were clearly in good shape and being used by two little boys.

The two boys went on with their cart and I went into the house to check on lunch.  After a bit William and Dalton came in and said they were done playing.  I forgot about the toys that had been taken outside or I would have reminded them - and William and Dalton had not brought them in.  I went out a little bit later and saw the gate was not closed and saw one little toy in the dirt.  Hmm?  I remembered the other toys and went in to ask William if he had dropped the one I found.  Uh-oh!  He had not remembered and they were all gone except for the one in my hand.

I called the girl that helped us in the house, Neide, to come outside.  She said that she hadn't got them either.  I looked down the street at about that same moment and saw the boys with the cart.  They saw me, too.  And they took off as fast as they could pushing a old rinkity cart.  I told Neide to take the boys in and shut the gate and off I went running down the street.  Now, let me tell you that at the time I weighed a lot more than I do now because I was about 8 months pregnant with Greyson.  But when needed I can run.  And run I did.

I didn't catch up with them right away.  They had rounded two corners in hopes of escaping the crazy American, but I have a knack at following people that are trying to get away from me and I guessed their next move.  I caught up to them because they had stopped running thinking that I had given up.  They tried to start running again when I started hollaring - Stop, you thieves!  A man and woman on that street who recognized me came out onto the sidewalk looking.   I think this made the boys stop.  I said to the junk boys to give me back my boys' toys.  They handed me one toy and said it was all they had taken.  I said - UH-UH! and held out my hands until they gave them all back.  I had on a big dress with a long skirt.  I piled the toys in my skirt and then said I wanted a good look in the cart before they left.  I verified that all the toys that had taken were in my skirt. 

I told them that my boys shouldn't have left the toys out in the sidewalk, but that they knew the toys were not for taking.  They had sneakily waited until my boys went in and then ran when they saw me because of guilt.

Then I waddled slowly back home with my skirt full of toys and feeling a little out of breath.  When I got home I took the toys into my bedroom and put them in a box way in the top of my closet.  I didn't give them back for about a week.  William never forgot to bring in his toys again.  Some of those toys are the one that boys and girls play with today in the nursery at our church!

Two lessons are here for you today:

Never leave your toys outside unattended

If your a junk boy, take what a nice lady gives you and move along.

p.s.  You know that story about the big trip and getting lost.  Uncle Byron shared some things that he recalls.  He said when he was waiting at the first place where we broke down for the missionary to come back with a part, buzzards started circling him overhead.  It was very hot and he laid down under a small bush and put his hat over his head.  He says it was rather scary thinking they might try to come down and see if he was dead yet.  

Also he had to wait a good while with nothing to do because he took the part off very quickly.  You see several weeks earlier he had talked to someone in a automotive shop about replacing the very part.  He thought their price was too high and decided to do it himself.  It took two days for him to do it because it was a little complicated.  But, because of that he knew exactly how to do it when it broke again and knew exactly what was wrong.