A Hard Lesson to Learn
A Hard Lesson to Learn
People are capable of anything in these tough economic times. Learning this lesson the hard way was scary, frustrating, and disappointing. As a child I was taught the difference between right and wrong. I was also taught that stealing was a crime. The events that follow permanently altered my belief in people and in the justice system. My family felt violated and unsafe. We had to learn to be more proactive in protecting our home and ourselves.
One afternoon, after lunch my family and I were sitting around relaxing when the doorbell rang. I got up to answer the door and realized it was a detective from the Sheriff’s office. As I invited him in, I felt apprehensive at the reason for his visit. When I asked him the reason for his visit, he stated that he believed our home had been burglarized. My family and I were completely unaware and started looking around as he asked if anything was missing. Everything seemed to be accounted for inside of the house so he asked us to check the garage. Upon entering the garage, I noticed that one of the fuel tanks was missing from my boat and that two of my rods and reels were missing as well. I was extremely angry because one of them belonged to my grandfather. The detective asked us to view photographs of some stolen items to try to identify our missing property. While viewing these I was able to identify my missing fishing equipment, which was later returned, but my tank was not among the items recovered.
We later learned the thieves were low on gas when they stole my fuel tank and placed the gas into their car. They did not realize that my fuel tank held a mixture of oil and gasoline which caused their vehicle to sputter and smoke. This was the reason they were pulled over by the police and questioned for having a multitude of property in their vehicle at the time. I felt like this was poetic justice. As the short investigation ended and the thieves provided a full confession, my
People are capable of anything in these tough economic times. Learning this lesson the hard way was scary, frustrating, and disappointing. As a child I was taught the difference between right and wrong. I was also taught that stealing was a crime. The events that follow permanently altered my belief in people and in the justice system. My family felt violated and unsafe. We had to learn to be more proactive in protecting our home and ourselves.
One afternoon, after lunch my family and I were sitting around relaxing when the doorbell rang. I got up to answer the door and realized it was a detective from the Sheriff’s office. As I invited him in, I felt apprehensive at the reason for his visit. When I asked him the reason for his visit, he stated that he believed our home had been burglarized. My family and I were completely unaware and started looking around as he asked if anything was missing. Everything seemed to be accounted for inside of the house so he asked us to check the garage. Upon entering the garage, I noticed that one of the fuel tanks was missing from my boat and that two of my rods and reels were missing as well. I was extremely angry because one of them belonged to my grandfather. The detective asked us to view photographs of some stolen items to try to identify our missing property. While viewing these I was able to identify my missing fishing equipment, which was later returned, but my tank was not among the items recovered.
We later learned the thieves were low on gas when they stole my fuel tank and placed the gas into their car. They did not realize that my fuel tank held a mixture of oil and gasoline which caused their vehicle to sputter and smoke. This was the reason they were pulled over by the police and questioned for having a multitude of property in their vehicle at the time. I felt like this was poetic justice. As the short investigation ended and the thieves provided a full confession, my