Hooligans!

I had been meaning to post this for a while, but I really like telling this story, so many of you may have already heard it. Here it is, in it's complete version...

We live in a nice, quiet, small, almost-cliche in-town neighborhood. We have one neighbor who goes all out on the inflatable holiday decorations, one who does amazing chainsaw carvings out of trees, and TWO that work in local law enforcement (one is directly next door to us). Imagine our surprise when, a few weeks ago, Jordan comes down the stairs in the morning, looks out the front picture window, and sees the hatch of our Jeep wide open. He investigates further, only to find that all of the compartments and drawers have been rifled through, papers everywhere. The only thing missing? Our brand new case of bottled water for our upcoming trek to Bismarck.

Now, we weren't heartbroken to lose a case of bottled water (heck, Jordan gives me crap every time I buy water... "free water on tap," blah blah blah... I can say that, b/c I'm pretty sure he doesn't read the blog.). However, we did think that we should probably call the police just to let them know that someone was in our neighborhood, up to no good.

So, I called Dispatch (my dad wasn't working), and sheepishly explained that we were missing a case of water out of our Jeep.

Dispatcher: "What brand."
Me: "Jeep Grand Cherokee."
Dispatcher: "No, what brand is the water?"
Me: "Oh.... Nestle PureWater from Walmart." (It would usually have been Walmart brand, but I sprung for the extra 50 cents this time, with absolutely no good reason. Don't tell Jordan.)
Dispatcher: "Okay. You never know what details might matter."

Shortly thereafter, they sent a police officer over to "get a statement." When he arrived (after I had scrambled to pick up the kitchen after the previous night's dinner), it was obvious that this wasn't the most thrilling call he'd ever gotten, and he was gone so fast that I didn't even catch his name. Probably could've left the dirty pots and pans (ahem... or frozen pizza box...) out. But - he asked me the same question about the brand of water.

Anyway, we headed to Bismarck, where we had an amazing trip (pics to come), and while we were there, my dad was joking around with some of the guys at the Sheriff's Office/Police Department, about how we could be surrounded by cops and not even a case of water is safe. That weekend, the son of our neighbor (who is yet another cop tied to our neighborhood), pulled over a car full of hooligans. Seeing a case of water in the backseat, he asked them where they got it.

Extremely unintelligent water-stealing hooligans: "We bought it from Wal-Mart."
Police Officer: "You can't get that water around here. That's special." (Ahh... sneaky.)
Extremely unintelligent water-stealing hooligans: "Yeah, we stole it out of the back of a Jeep."

Just. Like. That. They then proceeded to confess to a MONTH-LONG string of thefts in the Grand Rapids area (they were from Duluth). Most of the items were worth a lot more than the water (guns, etc.). However, it was the little, insignificant case of water that they just HAD to steal that broke the case.

And that's how my crime-fighting career has started.